All music festivals are different, so you might not need everything here, but this festival checklist aims to be exhaustive enough to cover all the essentials and any extras alongside, to ensure you don’t end up [literally] stuck in the mud. Anything missing? Feel free to make suggestions in the comments!

ESSENTIALS • Travel & Festival Tickets • Identification • Directions / Maps • Cash & Cards • Keys • CLOTHING • Raincoat & Waterproofs • Wellies • Sunglasses • Headgear • Clothes & Shoes • LUGGAGE • Camera • Phone • Torch • Umbrella • Tent • Sleeping Bag / Pillow / Mat • Chargers / Batteries • Books / Magazines • MP3 Player • Bin Liners & Laundry bag • TOILETRIES • Toothbrush & Toothpaste • Deodorant / Anti-persperant • Brush / Comb • Towel & Cloth • Soap • Shampoo / Conditioner • Tissues / Wipes • Mirror • Contraception • MEDICATION • Prescriptions • First aid kit • Paracetamol • Sunscreen • Insect Repellent • Glasses / Contacts & Solution • EXTRAS • Lighter / Matches • Gaffa Tape • Penknife • Bottle & Tin Openers • Cutlery • Cooking Equipment • Flag • Picnic Blanket • Food & Drink

• Tickets – You won’t just need the obvious festival tickets, but also your bus / tram / train tickets, too. Book travel tickets in advance, so they can arrive in time. Leaving it until the last minute runs the risk on not getting a seat, paying extra and getting stuck in queues. You’ll need them for the return journey too, so keep them safe.
• ID – If you’re travelling abroad, you’ll have your passport anyway, but for domestic festivals having a driving license or other form of ID is often a requirement to get in. Glastonbury, for example, doesn’t let you in if your ID doesn’t match the name on the ticket! Check the festival terms and conditions beforehand.
• Directions / Maps – If you’re driving, get organised and plan a proper route, even if it’s just making sure your satellite navigation knows where to go. Those using the trains and buses, make sure you know the correct stations and where to go when you arrive. When you arrive, grab a map of the site and mark on it exactly where your tent is located and where your car is parked if you’ve brought one.
• Cash & Cards – Festival cash machines tend to charge you for use and also have large queues. To save wasting time once you’ve arrive, it’s best to get cash out before you go, but keep it safe and split it up into a few chucks in different bags and pockets.
• Keys – An obvious one, but easily forgotten and it’s not particularly nice to get home from a festival and find yourself locked out. Leave a spare pair with your neighbour, if you don’t trust yourself to remember.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Raincoat / Waterproofs – A must for British festivals, you never know what’s going to happen with the weather. Venues are likely to sell ponchos anyway, but they can be thin, poorly made and expensive, so it’s better to take your own.
• Wellies – Navigating huge mud marshes is harder than it looks and you will ruin your shoes or trainers, if you don’t take a pair. Again, they can be bought on site, but they tend to go very quickly. Save yourself the bother of hunting around for a pair all day.
• Sunnies – Keep your eyes happy. Outdoor stages can often be in front of the sun, leaving you blinded as you try to watch.
• Headgear – A cap, bandana or winter hat, depending on the weather, is always useful.
• Spare Clothes & Shoes – Take enough clothing for each day of the festival, enough for changing after muddy mishaps and clean pairs of everything for trip home. Going all the way home wet and caked in mud is horrible for everyone involved. Combat trousers are best if your planning on carry a lot around with you.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Camera – Make sure you’ve got a case and strap for it, as they’re easy to drop and lose in crowded environments. You also might want to check you’ve got plenty of room on it before leaving and take an extra memory stick or film if necessary.
• Phone – Fully charged and primed with all your friends’ digits. It’s likely to run out if you use it a lot, so try and stick to texts and leave it switched off while you sleep to save those vital bars.
• Torch – Navigating back to your tent after an entire day of drinking is likely to end in disaster without light. It’s also essential for fiddling about in your tent at night, as you desperately try to take your contacts out and get into your sleeping bag.
• Umbrella – Just don’t go using it while you’re watching bands, it’s hugely annoying to the people behind you and don’t be surprised if things get thrown in your general direction. It’s best for keeping rain off your morning barbecue or keeping dry as you wait in the food queues.
• Tent – Make sure you know how to put it up and that you’ve got all the right pegs and pieces before leaving. You wouldn’t believe how many people arrive in the dark and discover they don’t actually know how to pitch their brand new tent.
• Sleeping Bag / Pillow / Roll Mat – Camping grounds aren’t particularly comfortable, having a mat and pillow to go with that sleeping bag helps save waking up in agony.
• Chargers / Batteries – You don’t want to run out of digital juice. Some festivals will have charging areas, but the queues get unbearable, so avoid them however you can. If you’re lucky enough to be off to a festival with power and plug sockets, be sure not to forget the charger.
• Travel Fodder – Books, magazines and a fully charged mp3 player for the journey there and back. If you plan on playing at bit of music at your tents, take some portable speakers to hook up your player to.
• Bin Liners / Laundry Bag – You’ll make tons of mess while you’re at the tent, so a bin liner or two for rubbish is really useful. Also, keep those muddy jeans or filthy shoes in their own bag to avoid ruining everything else. Try and get them dry before bagging them up, though else they’ll stink.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Toothbrush & Toothpaste – You can get those little finger toothbrushes now, which are really handy for saving space and are dispensable, too. It you’re going in a big group, it might make sense to just share things like toothpaste, to save everyone bringing it.
• Deodorant / Anti-persperant – Again, travel-sized sprays are easy to pick up.
• Hair Brush / Comb – You’ll need them for de-tangling if you’ve got long hair, after a not so pleasant wash under a running tap.
• Towel & Cloth – Bring a few if you’ve got the room, in case one doesn’t dry in time. If it’s baking hot, you could hang it up outside your tent afterwards, but if you leave there you run the risk of it getting soaked should the rain come!




• Soap / Shampoo / Conditioner – Washing and showering essentials. Facilities range from festival to festival, but there’s usually enough running water for a quick shower. Get up at dawn to beat the crowds.
• Tissues & Wet Wipes – Toilet roll often runs out, so it’s good to have your own back ups. Wet wipes help you to easily freshen up on the move.
• Small Mirror – For the vain or finding out how muddy your face is.
• Contraception – Because you never know.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Prescription Medicine – Whether it’s insulin or inhalers, make sure you have everything you need for the duration. Get an appointment with your doctor early enough to be able to get all your required elixor.
• First Aid Kit – Plasters, bandages, sterile wipes and the like are always handy. Especially if you’ve got youngsters with you who are rolling about all over the place.
• Paracetamol – The morning after might be a long way away now, but you’ll be thankful for packing them. Just be aware that drinking again with them in your system is dangerous for your health.
• Sun Lotion – You get burnt quicker than you’d think. Since you’re spending all day in the sun, keep the bottle on you, so you can top up as the day goes on.
• Insect Spray – These kind of repellents aren’t essential but are definitely useful at the more humid International festivals.
• Glasses / Contacts & Solution – Be sure to bring spares if you have them, as once you drop a contact in the mud, there ain’t no getting it back.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Lighter / Matches – Getting your stove or barbecues lit, or even joining in the nightly vigils with the rest of the crowd.
• Gaffa Tape – If you get a hole if your tent, this is the best and quickest way to patch it up.
• Pen Knife – Handy in ways you never realise until the time comes.
• Bottle & Tin Openers – You don’t want to find yourself resorting to using your teeth to desperately tear into that beer. Get a small key chain opener, if you need to save space. Or bring along a Swiss Army Knife to have all those fiddly instruments in one place.
• Disposable Cutlery – Unless you eat out of tins, using a sausage as a spoon, you’ll need cups, cutlery and plates.
• Cooking Equipment – There’s nothing like a summer festival BBQ. Don’t forget the food! A folding chair is also great for relaxing in as you prod those burgers. And if you’re going to be cooking everyday, perhaps a small stove, a pan, a kettle, a mug and some gas. It’s better to split things like this up amongst a few people to save one person struggling with it all.
• Flag – It’s so easy to lose your tent, even if you know what area it’s in. A big flag to stick in the ground by your base is perfect for finding your way back in both day and night.
• Blanket – For throwing down in front of your tent to sit, picnic and sunbathe on.
• Food & Drink – Remember that glass bottles aren’t allowed at a lot of festivals and will be confiscated at the entrance. So transfer anything you have into plastic ones. Soups and noodles are easy to carry and cook, but also bring some chocolate or energy bars to keep going throughout the day.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

Instantly find locations of your friends

This is a huge one for me and I’m sure it has been for many others who travel in groups, too. A quick example of its potential use – last year my friend had a stag weekend in Prague. There were about 15 of us travelling and we’d constantly go off separately or in smaller groups. Getting back together was a nightmare. Sure, we could call each other, but even then you can only really give the names of the roads you’re on and since nobody knew the area it was quite difficult, not to mention the huge phone bill incurred from doing that.

Google’s web application, Google Latitude, aimed to change all of that. Switch it on and you can see the exact location of your friends, provided they too have the app. That means that next time you split up in a group of friends you can easily relocate them. With being Google powered and having GPS, you should be able to use the app anywhere, you can also use the navigation for routes and directions.

Track route progress in real-time

I first used Google Maps on my mobile phone when I had a job interview for which I naturally hadn’t planned the journey ahead. I sat on a bus with the map open – carefully scrolling each time I passed a road, so that I could keep track of exactly where I was. I know that a lot of other mobile devices can now track your position in real-time, but it’s good that the new iPhone has taken this feature onboard.

With a variety of Sat Nav apps now available, from TomTom to Google, you can find your way around the UK, and Western Europe pretty easily with your phone. With apps like TomTom using GPS this should hopefully keep the costs down by being roaming-charge free, though Google Maps does still incur data charges.

Suggested amenities and facilities close to your current location

This one has the potential to radically change my holidays. I remember being in New York a few years back and after catching a music gig at Webster Hall, wandering around Greenwich Village looking for something to eat. Now, let’s face it, Manhattan’s just about the easiest place to find food in the world. You can’t walk down a street without seeing somewhere you want to eat. But we really fancied Japanese and somehow managed to walk in a direction with no results. Amazing considering just how many Japanese restaurants are around there. With an iPhone it’s  already there, you open the map, it instantly finds your location and all the amenities around you. Better still, each location is already armed with a phone number, meaning you can immediately call to making bookings and reservations.

It pretty much means you don’t need to worry too much about planning ahead and memorising travel guides. You can simply remember the odd name or two of places you want to visit and then look for what’s closest to you on your iPhone. Or even just browse on the fly and see where you end up. A lot of the time you can get lucky and find yourself strolling into a plethora of bars and restaurants, New York as such probably isn’t the best example of its use. But for smaller destinations, this will dramatically alter the way you plan (or more accurately – don’t plan) your day. There are some great apps to help with your plans, you can pre-book restaurants with the Top Table app or find a somewhere off the cuff with the Urban Spoon app.

Why travellers mayn’t embrace it:

I tried this feature out in a small town near Valencia and it just wouldn’t load. There was no 3G signal, and therefore the Internet runs particularly slow anyway, but maps simply wouldn’t show. It kind of made the feature redundant, since it can only be of any value when you’re in a place that has a decent strength 3G signal or a Wi-Fi connection. That pretty much destroys the point for me. Whilst it’s still nice to have in a big city, it’s the smaller places where it could really come in handy.

MobileMe photo galleries with push technology

This service is basically your own personal server space which holds all your contact data, email, calendar information and photo galleries. The idea is that you can access this information from any computer or iPhone and it all syncs together. For example, if you make a lunch date with someone while you’re out, you can add it to your calendar on the iPhone. This then instantly syncs with your Me account and makes the appropriate changes.

So how is this useful for travelling? The big thing for me are the photo galleries that push alerts to all your friends and family who also use an iPhone with a Me account. Say for example you’re spending a few months in Japan and you want to share some of the photos you’ve been taking with your friends and family. You can upload them directly from your phone to your Me account and this then pushes alerts to all your friends and family. So if your Mum is at her computer, she’ll receive a notification that you’ve added photos and go and see them, just seconds after you’ve uploaded them. It also pushes to other iPhones, so one of your friends could be out somewhere and still check your photos. You might already be able to send picture messages with current phones, but this addition of full sized photos, in galleries that push alerts to both computers and iPhones changes everything.

I think I’d find it most useful for organising after-event photos. I’m sure like me, most of you have been to a great event or party and the next day end up desperately trying to get in touch with everyone to see their photos. Naturally they end up spread across Picasa , Flickr and Facebook accounts and it’s difficult to get to see every single one. If you all have iPhones and Me accounts, you can be virtually anywhere in the world and browse each other’s photo galleries on the move along with being notified as they get added.

What barriers are there for travellers?

• You’ll have to pay an annual subscription fee. I don’t really think it’s entirely fair to charge for what’s essentially a push email service. The gallery feature is something I’m excited about, but probably not enough to want to pay £59 a year for the privilege.
• The best feature requires your friends and family to also have iPhones and a MobileMe account. Similar to the social app Loopt, it doesn’t seem so enticing to pay for this service and not really be able to use the best bits unless all of your friends and family have accounts.

If you have a Google account you can now access many of these facilities for free on any smart phone, though this isn’t a negative of the phone, more of having to pay for the service. You can also access Facebook, either through the app or Safari, where photos, stories and updates can easily be shared for free. MobileMe has its benefits, but there are so many ways through the iPhone that you can enjoy very similar services for free, which has to be a good thing.

Data usage included in tariff

I always worried about using the Internet too much on my old phone (Sony Eriksson W810i). Sometimes I used it to check football scores, other times I’d use it to check train times or get some help from Google Maps. You always felt under pressure though, as it’s never clear how much data is being used and how much you’re spending. I’m sure they’ll be some small print from the network operator saying there’s a penalty for excessive use, but for everyday searches and reading you won’t have to worry, as included in most tariffs is unlimited data use.

This takes a big weight off my shoulders when I’m visiting a new city. When I went to Brighton for the first time a couple of years ago and I’d forgotten to look up where the street was to meet my friends. I used Google Maps to navigate, but ended up with about £10 added to my bill at the end of the month. These sort of charges are finally becoming a thing of the past.

Though the iPhone tariffs are a little on the pricey side there have been considerable improvements post the O2 exclusivity. With operators fighting for business you can generally get the phone for free on a two year contract or at a much more reduced cost then before on an 18 month deal.

Booking online

It’s true that you can check the Internet on most modern phones, but I think the iPhone 3G takes a big step towards making it all easier. For example, how many people can honestly say they’ve booked a flight directly through a website on their phone? Not many I’d bet since it’s pretty fiddly, often quite slow and not all sites have mobile-friendly versions. Better yet, of those small number of people who did book something online with their phone, how many worried about the poor integration of security and wondered whether their details were even encrypted at all?

The iPhone eases those fears and makes the whole process much easier. The Safari browser shows the padlock symbol for secure sites and you can see site certificates for them easily enough. Also, because of the large screen real estate that comes with an iPhone, it isn’t necessary to view the mobile versions of sites. You’re always seeing exactly what you would on your computer and it’s easy to scroll and zoom in with the “pinch” feature of the phone. Which makes browsing perfectly usable.

Some of the more forward thinking airlines, such as BA, have recently launched new apps that allow you the check-in and download your virtual boarding pass which saves time at the airport and the Star Alliance airlines such as Swiss and Lufthansa have added a nice easy booking system into there apps. The booking sections on these apps are quick and easy to use, as they are designed for the phone opposed to shrunken websites.

For the first time, I feel like I could actually book a flight without feeling like it will take me an hour to navigate, time-out half way through the transaction and leave my card details exposed.

What isn’t so great about browsing on an iPhone?

It still is a major hamper to not be able to view Flash on an iPhone. Admittedly, Flash is less common now, with more sites using alternatives such as html5, and annoys me profusely when I’m browsing, but that isn’t really an excuse for not allowing users to view those pages.

Traffic alerts

While no standard application is planned from Apple, third parties are expected to provide traffic alerts to your phone. If you’re driving, you probably use the radio to find out.

iChat integration

Despite rumours and greasy fingerprints that looked like a front-facing camera, video calling is currently not available on the iPhone. It’s not entirely travel-related, but video calls are still nice if you haven’t seen someone for a long time. Say you’re on a gap year and you’ve decided to work a season skiing in Verbier. After a couple of months of not seeing your friends and family, that’s exactly when video-chat comes in handy. I was surprised that this feature wasn’t included, but I’m sure it’s pinned for a future release.

Since Apple have already circulated iChat on their Macs to significant success, I don’t think it would be too difficult to downsize the software for iPhone use. The biggest hurdle would probably be to create a PC version of iChat, which as far as I’m aware doesn’t currently exist.

Quality of the iPhone Camera

If Apple are going to really promote great features such as MobileMe’s photo gallery integration, they’re going to struggle selling it to people on the basis of this camera. I’ve never bothered with cameras on phones. After all, if you want quality photos, you need a stand-alone digital camera anyway. It’s more the fact that now that it’s so easy to share photos on your travels, it seems such a waste to be using an average camera.

It’s not that the camera is particularly bad. It just hasn’t been touched at all since the first generation iPhone. This means there’s still no flash and the resolution is quite low compared to most new phones. That pretty much reduces you to only being able to take photos and record video in well-lit areas.. It would have been nice to at least have a camera in line with most other modern mobile phone. It would be unfair to demand a phone camera that does what a Fuji Finepix F30 can manage in low-light, but surely an upgrade from last year’s isn’t too big an ask.

I must point out the iPhone 4G is due for release this summer and the rumoured improvements include a new camera, faster OS and better battery than the current crop of 3G and 3Gs phones.

Summary of travelling with an iPhone

Overall my gripes aren’t with the iPhone itself, but with the applications, the networks and the general availability of the associated technologies. For people here in the UK who don’t travel or go on holiday much, you’ll be able to maximise your use of the iPhone without having to overspend. However those who plan on using the iPhone when visiting other countries will have to prepare to spend more than they’d like to use it. Travellers are constantly leaving their native country, which means data costs of abroad phone use remain one of the biggest factors which needs to be combated. This isn’t really Apple’s problem, but it is a barrier which networks will have to overcome if they really want people to embrace the technology that is becoming available.

The iPhone 3Gs now offers enough features to physically change the way you travel. I can safely and easily book a flight through a site, I can plot routes to anywhere and follow in real-time, I can locate where my friends are at any moment, I can quickly obtain the nearest shops, bars and hotels around my location and even have the option to call directly to make a booking at any of those places without having to search for the numbers manually, I can take photos on the move and add them to my gallery – pushing them through to all my friends and family at the same time.

Yet getting these features aren’t as broad as Apple have suggested and all have their drawbacks, which at least means there’s room for future improvements. As it currently stands it’s still a fair distance in front of its closest rivals and it can potentially alter how you organise travelling in a positive way. I’m not sure which will come next – whether the world networks will start talking to each other and work out a cheaper way for us to use mobiles abroad, or whether enough free Wi-Fi spots will crop up for it not to matter, but until then prepare to have to spend to get the most out of the iPhone.

Useful Links

iPhone homepage

iPhone Apps

MobileMe

When most people think of summer festivals, Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, V-Festival and Download spring to mind. This year why not try something different, a little less mainstream and yet still with great crowds, unique atmospheres and incredible line-ups.

Wakestock – 2nd – 4th July

To start the summer there is Wakestock in Abersoch, North Wales. Now for most of us, the reasons to head to a fairly remote village on the North Wales Peninsula are few and far between. For fans of wakeboarding, adrenaline-fuelled weekends and music festivals, Wakestock is the perfect excuse.

The festival is set in the outskirts of the beautiful village of Abersoch, with the music and camping on one site and the wakeboarding down in the Pwlheli marina. The daytime entertainment is now one of Europe’s premier competitions with pro-riders from all over the world competing with inverted tricks, 1080 spins, rails and jumps. The music kicks off early evening and boasts headliners such as Feeder, N-Dubz, Maximo Park and The Scratch Perverts. Wakestock is the biggest wakeboarding and music festival in Europe.

For those who are not big fans of festival camping you can stay in the village and jump in a short taxi or bus ride up to the main site. Buses run through the day to bring the campers down to the marina and the village and to  return back to the main site for the evening.

My last visit to this festival involved a group of ten of us staying in one of the many holiday cottages for the week. Chilling by the beach, the marina and in the village pubs each day, followed by a cheap taxi ride up the main site to enjoy the music and party atmosphere. Not that I have anything against camping but having clean showers and beds compared to filth that I endured in Leeds was a welcome comfort.

If you like action sports, a great range in music and a chilled atmosphere that can break into a huge party at anytime, then this is the festival for you.

Secret Garden Party – 22nd – 25th July

The Secret Garden Party is one of the most bohemian and boutique festivals you can experience. With the emphasis being on community spirit set in a massive garden party full of ’60s inspiration and style. The venue is near to Huntington in the Cambridgeshire countryside and the festival organisers ask those driving not to disturb the local villages and also offer coaches from London, Brighton and Bristol to help reduce CO² emissions.

The entertainment is as varied as you would see at any festival in the world. Instead of the usual two or three massive stages that the big festivals go for, there are 14 intimate arenas to take in the live music on offer. The musical highlights include Mercury Rev and Crystal Fighters, though this festival is as much about the activities as it the music.

For those looking to relax and take in the atmosphere there will be a sing-a-long with the Jungle Book on the big screen. There is the Karaoquee Camp set in an oriental theme to fill those singing and samuri urges. There is full-on face painting, a 1960s salon and art exhibitions. There are theatre productions, the Samba Band alarm clock (starting at 10am!) and games that include paint wars – essentially a battle of paint, wits and bravery.

There is more to do at the Secret Garden Party than I could begin to imagine or describe. For those wanting a bit of luxury there is boutique camping with butler service included. The festival is also one of the most family-friendly around with the kids’ parade, more face painting and children’s theatre. If you are looking for something different, an escape from reality and an enchanting vibe the Secret Garden Party is your festival this summer.

Field Day Festival – 31st July

East London plays host to Field Day Festival. A strictly adult-only one day event that combines fantastic music with a village fete atmosphere. Based in Victoria Park this is one event you can get to with the greatest of ease using London’s public transport.

The rustic festival is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, last year included egg and spoon races, tug of war and other classic games straight out of a 19th century rural fair. As the day goes on the music warms up with three stages offering Londoners an incredible line-up.

This may only be a one day event but it offers a great escape and a fantastic party for those who just can’t bring themselves to leave the capital.

Big Chill – 5th – 8th August

The Big Chill does what it says on the tin. It’s a fantastic festival with a chilled vibe. The general crowd are a little more mature and it is a family-friendly event. Set in Hertfordshire, the 35,000 capacity festival is as far removed from the likes of Creamfields and Global Gathering as you can get.

The Big Chill festival is another event that combines a diverse choice in music with performing arts, comedy and film. The festival is run by Big Chill, who also run a record label, a bar and a nightclub. With a background in music and entertainment their flag-ship the Big Chill Festival is a winner.

Over the past decade the festival has boasted some fantastic artists. Starting with this year there is Massive Attack and Mr Scruff and in previous years Basement Jaxx, Orbital, Royksopp, Zero 7 and Goldfrapp have all entertained the crowds. This year also boasts British acts such as Lily Allen, Roots Manuva and Plan B.

I asked a friend of mine about their favourite aspect of the Big Chill and got a less than usual answer ‘well the music is always pretty good and there aren’t any chavvy teenagers but the best thing is the clean toilets and showers’. Well there you have it, any festivals with good hygiene are good festivals in my eyes!

Bestival – 9th – 12th September

The closest I am ever going to get to ‘what Glastonbury used to be like before the fences’ is Bestival. This is a festival that manages to combine a bohemian crowd with boutique style and world class line-ups. For those who feel Bestival is getting too big there is also the intimate Camp Bestival earlier in the year. The event is held at Robin Hill on the Isle of White and attracts a very loyal crowd.

Bestival offers a different experience to other festivals, for example one of the days is an official fancy dress, in 2005 they broke the record for the biggest organised fancy dress, with 10,000 cowboys and indians! This year’s theme is Fantasy, whether that be Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland or Lord of the Rings, as long as you take part you can be as creative as you wish.

The festival is also incredibly family-friendly. With a more relaxed crowd than the mainstream events, the number of people taking their kids to Bestival is growing, there is even the Bigtopmania Kidzone Team and the Breastival baby temple for new mothers.

With a huge amount of boutique stalls, a hidden disco (yes it was hidden and took some time to find) and an eclectic line-up this is a really unique festival. This year’s highlights are going to include The Prodigy, Dizzy Rascal, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, the Flaming Lips and Roxy Music. There’s the Pamper Lounge for the spa treatments, the Inflatable Church for the spiritual types and the Buttercupcakes Afternoon Tea Hut.

This is a fantastic weekend of entertainment, decadence and dance. The way festivals should be and the perfect end to the summer.

I don’t know what your musical tastes are, whether a grown up crowd or a field full of hippies, is your scene but with the depressing ash-cloud hanging over our heads, why worry about cancelled flights and four day trips home. There is a festival to suit everyone and plenty more I haven’t mentioned. If you want a weekend of raucous Scottish partying try out Rockness, if Indie is more your thing there is the Truck festival and if you have a fetish for bearded men motorcycles there’s the Bulldog Bash.

Don’t get the holiday blues, relax and enjoy the British summer. Pack your biggest tent, designer wellies and fancy dress and get stuck in. I will.

Written by Stephen Adam

With Facebook one of the most visited sites on the internet and the likes of Twitter and Bebo growing by the day, most tech savvy skiers will have access to at least one online social network. With online travel agents making the booking process easier we are spending more time researching and reading about skiing and snowboarding online.

Whether booking holidays, checking our resort reviews, or signing up to snow alerts all the info we need is out there. I decided to have a look into the so called big resorts to see who we can ‘add as a friend’, ‘like’ or ‘tweet’. With growing numbers of people using Facebook and Twitter to organise their holidays with friends there had to be a presence of info out there to help with our choices.

The first thing I noticed is when looking at the big North-American resorts such as Whistler, Breckenrige and Aspen they all use Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds and weekly newsletters to maximum effect. With minimal effort you can find out where the snow, best deals and biggest parties will be.

In contrast the European resorts are a little further behind. The Three Valleys has so far abstained from social networking, with exception to the independently run LaTania.co.uk (though anyone who knows La Tania wouldn’t expect any less from Toffa). The Espace Killy have joined in the world of Facebook with posts in English, whereas you may need to brush up on your French when looking for your Les Arcs fix.

Below I have complied a list of the ‘big’ resorts social networking, though I will update the list with any comments you may have.

Andorra

• Grandvalira: Facebook (Catalan/Spanish)

Austria

• Mayrhofen: Facebook (multilingual) & Twitter (German)
• Saalbach: Facebook (mulitlingual but mostly German)
• St. Anton: Facebook & Twitter (both German)
• Ischgl: Facebook & Twitter (both German)

Canada

• Banff (Ski Big 3): Facebook & Twitter
• Fernie: Facebook & Twitter
• Tremblant: Facebook & Twitter
• Whistler Blackcomb: Facebook & Twitter

France

• La Plagne: Facebook & Twitter (both French)
• La Tania (latania.co.uk unofficial site): Facebook & Twitter
• Les Arcs: Facebook
• Les Deux Alpes: Facebook (French)
• Serre Chevalier: Facebook (French)
• Tignes: Facebook
• Val d’Isere: Facebook

Spain

• Formigal: Facebook & Twitter (both Spanish)

U.S.A.

• Aspen Snowmass: Facebook & Twitter
• Breckenridge: Facebook
• Jackson Hole: Facebook &: Twitter
• Killington: Facebook & Twitter
• Lake Tahoe: Facebook & Twitter
• Park City: Facebook & Twitter
• Vail: Facebook & Twitter

The idea behind the challenge is to take in the atmosphere from all the different footballing nations. Venues like Bar Italia in Soho are pretty famous for the TV screens in the windows and the Italian fans lining the street with azure blue and espresso. There is more to the world’s biggest festival of football than just supporting your country at home or down the pub, this is a great opportunity to enjoy the carnival spirit of the Latin American nations, the noise and vibrancy of the African nations and the, well, orange-ness of the Dutch.

Bars, restaurants, cafes and even open houses are fair game. Basically, anywhere that we can be surrounded by people supporting whoever is playing, whether it be Algeria vs Slovenia or England vs U.S.A. Living in London offers people the chance to take in so many cultures, in my office alone we have managed to find different venues for half the matches.

World Cup 2010

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is shaping up to be a fantastic tournament. As usual, the English believe they finally have a team good enough to win and will rely on two or three players, Rooney, Stevie G and Lampard this time, Shearer and Sheringham in years gone by. Argentina barely qualified but boast the world’s best player in Messi and you just can’t bet against Maradona. There are the usual suspects of Brazil, Germany, Italy and the perennial under-achieving Holland. Right now Spain are on top of the world and with a fit Torres and Villa they look pretty formidable.

This year also has a great choice of underdogs. Africa has never had a World Cup winning country and with the tournament being played in South Africa it could make for an interesting tale. The Ivory Coast look dangerous, with the ever controversial Didier Drogba leading the line and top players like the Toure brothers Kolo and Yaya, Ghana may be an outside bet and if Essien is fit you never know.

London Bars

With the help of a few friends and the power of Facebook and Twitter we have amassed a list of venues. If you want to help us finish the list please tweet us your suggestions or post a comment below and we’ll update this page.

View London World Cup bars 2010 in a larger map

Algerian Bars

Argentinan Bars
Santa Maria del Sur (Queenstown Road)

Australian Bars in London
Walkabout (Temple)
Walkabout (Shepherd’s Bush)
Beluschi’s (Borough)

Brazilian Bars
Guanabara (nr Covent Garden)
Rodizio Rico (Bayswater)
Rodizio Rico (Islington)
Made in Brazil (Camden)

Cameroon

Chile

Denmark
Nordic Bar (nr Oxford St)

England

French Bars
Les Bar des Amies (Clapham Junction)
Le Bouchon (Clapham Common)

German Bars
Bavarian Beerhouse (nr Old Street)
The Octoberfest Pub (Fulham)

Ghana
The Gold Coast Bar & Restaurnat (South Norwood)
The Gold Coast Bar (Brixton)

Greece – Greek Bars
Parsons Green (any suggestions?)
Halepi Restuarant (Bayswater)

Honduras

Italy – Italian Bars
Bar Italia (Soho)

Ivory Coast

Japan

Korea DPR
The Fountain (New Malden)

Korea Republic
The Fountain (New Malden)

Mexico – Mexican Bars
Mercado Bar & Cantina (Stoke Newington)

Netherlands – Holland – Dutch Bars
De Hems (Soho)
Lowlander (Covent Garden)

New Zealand – Kiwi Bars
The Southerner (Temple)

Nigeria
D’ Den, Kilburn
Mama Cala Bar, Wembley

Paraguay

Portugal
Bar Estrela (Stockwell)
Cafe Kick (Exmouth market)
Bar Kick (Shoreditch)

Serbia
Paya and Horse (Battersea)

Slovakia

Slovenia

South Africa
The Bok Bar (Covent Garden)
Puzzle Pub (Earlsfield)

Spain – Spanish Bars
Bodega De Tapas (Camden)
San Miguel’s (Edgware Road)

Switzerland – Swiss Bars
St. Moritz (Soho)

Uruguay

U.S.A. American Bars

I figured it makes sense to have a simple table with lift pass prices broken down. That way, there’s an at-a-glance way of helping add up your ski holiday costs before booking. Please note, that resorts change their lift pass prices regularly and also taking into account that the exchange rate fluctuates, it’s very difficult to have accurate prices. As such the below are all approximations, based on 6 days in peak season. Last updated: 02 March 2009.

Ski Lift Passes by Cost

I manually upkeep this list and add to it when I can, so I’ve tried to include the most popular resorts, but if there’s a specific resort you’d like to know the lift pass prices of (that isn’t already listed), feel free to make a request in the comments. I will be including the cost of Canadian and US lift passes next.

Editor’s note: guest post from Lockie Brown.

For a very different kind of ski holiday, the Whistler Weasel Workers have congregated, every few years, on the slopes of Whistler Mountain and at other ski racing venues to work together to create a world-class race courses for World Cup, Noram, National Championship and Olympic Alpine ski races.

The Whistler Weasel Workers is a volunteer society whose members share an interest in Alpine ski racing and a joy in the camaradrie and sense of accomplishment in putting on a major ski race. The Whistler Weasels have been active since the 1970’s and have build the track for every World Cup, national championship and Noram race every held in Whistler BC, Western Canada’s premier ski area.

In years when there is no senior ski race scheduled for Whistler, Weasel Workers can often be found helping at other ski racing venues, including the Calgary and Salt Lake Winter Olympics, the World Championships at Sierra Nevada and at Bormio, Italy and at World Cup races at Lake Louise, Alberta and at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

In 2008, the Weasels were active in putting on the Canadian National Championships and four Whistler World Cup ski races. In 2009, the Weasels will assist with the Canadian Junior Championships and with an International Paralympic World Cup to be held on Whistler Mountain. As well, Weasel Workers have assisted with the 2008 Winterstart World Cup races in Lake Louise and with the Birds of Prey races in Beaver Creek. Weasel Workers are also planning to assist with the 2009 FIS World Championships in Val d’Isere, France.

In 2010, the Whistler Weasel Workers will be heavily involved with the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games and have been assisting with the planning of these events since 2007.

Membership in the Whistler Weasel Workers is open to any skier who volunteers to work with us for four or five days on a Weasel-sponsored race. There is no membership criterea besides a willingness to work hard, to make many new friends and to become a part of the camaradrie that sustains the organization. There is work enough for volunteers of all ages and for non-skiers as well as all levels of intermediate and expert skiers. Core membership consists of a few hundred “locals” who reside in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia (Vancouver and surroundings). In addition, many members reside throughout Canada and the USA, as well as in Europe, New Zealand and Australia. These “offshore” members travel to Whistler to work on our races, to hone their skills and knowledge, to re-kindle friendships and to enjoy a unique ski holiday.

Visit the Weasel Workers Web site for photos and videos of the Weasel Workers in action and to learn more about our activities and support of Alpine ski racing.

After first getting into using RSS feeds and readers, I quickly began to realise that there were still many ways I could save time and keep everything more organised. For example, by making my browser default to handling RSS feeds in relation to my feed reader, it meant that every time I clicked a feed it automatically added it. Also, once I began using a feed reader as my homepage, I needed better ways of viewing static bookmarks or, better yet, creating RSS feeds for sites which don’t already have them. Below, I’ll talk through some of the ways in which you can make RSS work more naturally.

1. Defaulting Firefox to Send RSS to Your Feed Reader

First things first. Once your realise the benefits of replacing bookmarks with RSS, you’ll need a quicker way of adding them. Right clicking feed icons, copying and pasting the address, and then opening your feed reader to add them is far too arduous a task. Modern browsers like Firefox understand RSS, so let’s make them do the work for you.

How to Choose your Default RSS Application in Firefox:

If you use Internet Explorer, then you’ll be saddened to hear that it is still yet to catch up with the likes of Firefox. However, if you’re using Google Reader to organise your RSS feeds, then the latest version of Google Toolbar will let you join in the fun.

2. Finding Categorised Feeds

Some people make the mistake of just adding the first feed they come to on a site, without realising they can often get a breakdown of just the items they want. For example, most sites will have a main feed that encompasses everything they post. Sometimes though, you don’t want the whole feed and you only read a site for a particular section.

Let’s take this site as an example. On the homepage I could quite easily grab the main feed, but this would give you every single post made on the blog. What if you were only interesting in skiing? If you head to the feeds page, you’ll find a breakdown of RSS feeds for each category allowing you to subscribe solely to the content you want.

3. Following Blog Comments

Akin to grabbing category-only feeds, you can also get RSS for comments on blogs. If you want to follow a particularly interesting conversation on a post, or perhaps you’ve commented on something yourself and want to keep checking for updates, then a blog’s comments feed is just what you need.

There are usually two kinds of comment feeds on a blog, the main one which captures all comments made across the site (above, 1) and then individual ones for comments only on specific posts (above, 2).

You can go a step further with blog comments by using co.mments to track them all. Each time you comment somewhere, you can click a button which you add to your browser and it gets stored and tracked all automatically. The best bit is that there’s an RSS feed containing all the posts you’re tracking, which you can pop into your feed reader for future viewing.

4. How to Filter an RSS feed

Occasionally you’ll find yourself with a feed that still contains items you don’t want to see or use. That’s where Feedrinse comes in handy. You can tell Feedrinse to look at a particular RSS feed and then based on filters you specify, it will create a brand new feed customised to your requests.

As a really basic example, let’s say I want to block any posts from a travel feed that contain “UK”. Maybe you only want to get information that’s from places abroad as you’re sick of the UK’s summer rain. With Feedrinse you add the feed in question and use the drop-down boxes to set up a series of conditions that change the outcome of the feed. Then once you’ve saved it, you get a brand new feed which filters your conditions from then on. Hurray!

5. How to Combine Several RSS Feeds

If I have a lot of related feeds that are updated infrequently, I generally to bring them together into one RSS feed. This doesn’t just save you space in your feed reader but also gives a little extra bandwidth and saves your reader from having to continually check them all separately. RSSMix does just this. Simply enter a list of the feeds you want merging and it spits out a shiny new one with them all cumulated.

This is a really great way to cram a load of data together and is a pretty powerful feature. I often use RSSMix to create feeds I can read on my mobile phone. With the extreme costs of using the Internet on most mobiles, using RSS can get pretty expensive, so by merging my most important feeds I can save a lot of time and money by reading just one singular feed with everything inside.

6. Customised RSS Feeds

It’s actually possible to go one step further with filtering and merging. What if you wanted to compare different feeds and then run the result of those alongside another? There are all kinds of possible customisations available with Yahoo Pipes.

You can take loads of feeds and filter, merge and mix them about to output something that’s much more interesting or useful to you. Maybe you want to compare lots of different travel deals from a range of sites, but filter them all to only show you offers under a certain price. The sky’s the limit with Yahoo Pipes.

In fact, beyond creating you’re own, it’s always great to search what other people have made. Have a browse for “New York” and you’ll come across this New York Times meets Flickr feed (above). It takes all New York Times articles and runs each one through a content analysis to pick out the most relevant keywords. Then it runs these keywords through photo-sharing site Flickr and spits out photos that match. Stuff like this is genuinely brilliant. I can’t get enough of it.

7. Get Feeds of Pages Without RSS

It’s really frustrating when you come across a great new site that would work perfectly with an RSS feed and it turns out there isn’t one. There isn’t a complete solution for certain pages, however Feedity and Dapper do an excellent job of creating feeds for sites without any.

How do they work? Let’s take eBay as an example, eBay is terrible for RSS feeds. In fact the whole site is terrible, but that’s for another post. Say I’m going camping and need a new rucksack. I might want to keep tabs on all new rucksack related items. But where’s my RSS feed, eBay? It’s coldly absent, but fortunately I can enter the URL into Feedity and it creates one for me. Now each time there’s a new rucksack posted I get an update! The possibilities are almost limitless.

8. RSS to Email Converters

So we’ve learnt all the different ways to get, craft and join RSS feeds, so let’s move on to their visibility. You might not always be in a position to keep checking for updates to your feeds. If you’re spent for time, the last thing you want is to be wasting time checking your feed reader when there’s nothing coming in.

Sometimes I switch to sending certain feeds via email, if I’m wanting to be notified the moment there’s something new. Send Me RSS lets you send feed updates to your inbox. It’s really handy for when I’m at work and want to get updates on travel news without having to keep checking my feed reader.

9. Static Bookmarks Modules in Feed Readers

Whilst yes, you can now get RSS feeds for virtually any page, sometimes a page just isn’t suitable for having one. What if it’s not a page that updates, or it’s a business tool like Google AdSense, or something with security like online banking? If you’re intending to use a feed reader such as Netvibes as a central hub for all the sites you read, what’s the best way to view static bookmarks?

There’s a great bookmark module which most feed readers will have and it’s perfect for throwing in sites that you’ll still access a lot but don’t need to (or can’t) be RSS feeds. You’re probably thinking, why bother using that when you can just add bookmarks in your browser? Well, if you keep your bookmarks within your feed reader, not only will you be keeping all your sites and feeds in one place, but you’ll also be able to access them from anywhere in the world.

That’s the beauty of a service like Netvibes, as long as you have access to the Internet you can view all your sites. So yes, you could keep bookmarking things in your browser, but next time you’re on that business trip with a flashy new laptop, you’ll be deeply regretting that you didn’t remember to transfer across your bookmarks from your computer.

10. Publishing your Set-up and Sharing Feeds

Finally, once you’ve spent all the time getting your feed reader set up just perfectly, you’ll want to start sharing all the great feeds you’ve found with your friends. A lot of feed readers these days come bundled with plenty of social networking aspects to make this a cinch. The important thing is to make sure all your friends are using the same feed reader as you are.

So, if you’re using Netvibes you may notice that you have a “personal universe”. This is kind of like a second Netvibes account that lets you publicly show any feeds. This is always interesting as you often find the best and most useful feeds from friends or just other users in general. It also gives you a chance to place feeds you want others to see or follow.

Beyond this, Netvibes also allows you to share your own feeds really easily by clicking the envelope on a feed module and selecting where you want to send it. Likewise, if you come across a great feed in one of your friend’s Netvibes pages, you can send it back to your own page just as easily.

Phew, that’s the final part done. Hopefully there’s been something useful for you in this series. In the future I’ll look at some of the best travel feed mash-ups with users have come with on Yahoo Pipes.

I used to spend a lot of time trying to keep on top of anything travel related and it’s a mountain of a task at its easiest. The advent of RSS feed readers has cut down this time significantly. Below are 50 travel sites that I read regularly and use their RSS feeds to keep on top of. There’s everything from travel blogs to gadget reviews, but ultimately (and hopefully) they’ll be something of use to you, even if it’s just one or two sites you hadn’t seen before.

If you’re anything like me, you’re not about to manually add 50 feeds to your reader from some blog you’ve never heard of, so I’ve made them available as an OPML file. All you need to do is download this and upload it via whichever feed reader you use to automatically add them all. Or, if you’re even lazier than that, I’ve made all the feeds available on my public Netvibes Universe, which you could just bookmark and view whenever.

This list isn’t meant to be a definitive resource, please feel free to make suggestions of glaring omissions or simply feeds you use which I (and others) may not have come across before.

Newspaper Travel Sections

The Times – Travel news and features for the UK and worldwide.
The Guardian – Latest news & reviews on UK and world holidays.
New York Times – Expert travel advice for destinations around the world.
The Telegraph – Travel news and holiday advice.
The Independent – Latest travel news from the Independent online travel team.

General Travel Websites

Vagabondish – Offbeat backpacking and travel news.
Brave New Traveler – Travel magazine dedicated to exploring travel in the 21st century.
Eye for Travel – Travel distribution news, events and analysis.
National Geographic Adventure – The best in adventure travel and eco-tourism.
Lonely Planet – Travel guides and guidebooks.

Travel Blogs

Gridskipper – A worldwide travel blog.
Gadling – Travel news and links.
Travel Weekly Blog – Travel industry analysis.
Travel Rants – Travel consumer issues and advice to travel safely.
Alex Bainbridge – Travel e-commerce focussing on tour operators & travel companies.
Upgrade: Travel Better – The mechanics of travel, seen from a consumer’s point of view.
Blog on Travel – Hospitality, Travel and Tourism online.
Travel Blog – Open sign-up, multi-authored travel blog network.
Travel Technology – Latest travel industry technology and business trends.
Travel Remark! – Remarks on the travel e-commerce and technology industry.

Travel Gear and Gadgets

Geeky Traveller – Reviews, news and deals on travel gear.
Travel Gear Blog – Latest travel equipment reviewed.
Travel Gear Review – Gadgets, tools and tips for geeks who love to travel.
The Coolhunter Gadgets – Cutting edge and niche gadgets for travellers.
Travelizmo – Gadget and gear reviews.

Travel Industry News

Travel Trade Gazette – The latest news, views, pictures and jobs from the travel industry.
Travel Weekly News – Breaking news on both travel industry and services in the UK.
Travelmole – Community for travel and tourism.
Travolution – Commentary and analysis on the online travel industry.
T4 Blog – The mechanics of travel, seen from a consumer’s point of view.

Travel Social Networks

Socruise – Cruise community network.
Driftr – Travel community with personal trip reviews.
Here or There – Trip reviews and advice.
Wiki Travel – Open, user-driven Wiki on all things travel.
I Go U Go – Recommended holidays from fellow travellers.

Travel Forums

Thorn Tree – Lonely Planet’s user forum.
Destination 360 – Worldwide travel discussion.
Aardvark Travel – Large userbase of travellers.
Boots ‘n All – Knowledgeable travel community offering reviews and advice.
Travelpodium – Large forum discussing all areas of travel.

Travel Podcasts

Indie Travel Podcast – Travel ideas and advice for independent travellers.
Lonely Planet Podcast – Travel stories and adventures.
Amateur Traveler Podcast – A travel podcast for people who love to travel.
Tips for Travellers – Travel blog and podcast based on first-hand travel experiences.
Geography for Travelers – News, geography, and social science insights on travel world.

Specialist and Advice

Foreign and Commonwealth Office – Regular travel advice and alerts.
Metcheck Weather – Custom feed of the weather in an area of your choice.
Cruise Critic – Latest cruise news.
ABTN – Business travel news and advice.
The Coolhunter – Destination recommendations that are too cool for school.

In part three, I look at 10 Essential Tips for Streamlining RSS Feeds.

I know so few people that use RSS feeds, that it’s unreal. It’s amazing because using them isn’t much effort, they make it easy to keep on top of all the topics you’re interested in and you can access them from any computer no matter where you are. This especially applies to the travel industry because there are so many different areas to keep an eye on and they’re constantly updating, meaning if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to miss something new. I thought I’d run through the steps you can take to setting up an RSS Reader for displaying travel feeds. It’s ridiculously easy and the change is well worth it.

I think most people are comfortable with just bookmarking and checking sites at their own leisure. But there will come a point when you either have too many bookmarks to keep on top of, or you’ll miss an important site update which you really needed to know. Take festival tickets as a prime example – if you’re checking the festival site manually via a bookmark every day, you might come late to the ticket sale. Whereas with an RSS feed, you’ll get updated the instant the news goes live.

In this post, I’ll take you through:

• 1. The basics – what is RSS and how do you use it?
• 2. Feed Readers – what they are and how they display your feeds.
• 3. Adding your feeds – migrating feeds to a Feed Reader.
• 4. Feed organisation – arranging feeds for easy reading.
• 5. Replacing your homepage – using Feed Readers as a central hub.

Let’s start with the basics, such as what exactly RSS is and how you use feeds.

1. What are RSS feeds?

It a nut-shell, they’re like self-updating bookmarks. They’re most commonly displayed on websites as this orange beacon which is also a link: . They contain all the latest information from a site and update automatically as new stuff gets posted. This means when you add an RSS feed to your bookmarks, you’ll get an extended menu offering you each of the latest posts.

Try it and see how easy it is. Click the above orange symbol and see what happens. The actions you take next might differ slightly depending on what browser you’re using, but the end result is the same.

Adding RSS feeds in Internet Explorer:

Adding RSS feeds in Firefox:

What if you’re using a browser that’s a bit outdated and can’t access feeds like this? Don’t worry! This is just an example of RSS usage. You can still move onto the next step and start using a standalone Feed Reader.

Now that you know what RSS feeds are and how to get them, you can easily view updates to the sites you read. So, what’s the best way to use them?

2. Choosing a Feed Reader

Just like with normal bookmarks, feeds can get messy and organising them can be difficult. I used to spend hours creating all neatly laid out folders for all mine. That’s where RSS Feed Readers come into it. Instead of storing all your RSS feeds in a toolbar or bookmark manager in your browser as just shown above, you can give them their very own web page. It’s all free and again, it’s very easy. It also takes your feeds from being a few links, to being able to read all your sites without externally visiting them.

Firstly, you’ll need to choose your weapon. I personally use Netvibes; another popular one is Google Reader, but there are hundreds of different kinds out there. I’m going to stick with Netvibes for the purpose of a tutorial, but as they all work very similarly, there won’t be any big differences if you decide to use something different.

3. Adding RSS to your Feed Reader

Start by opening http://www.netvibes.com/ and signing up. Once you’ve done that you’ll be faced with a page that looks much like a browser with several tabs that each already have a few feeds. In the screencast below, I’ll scrap all the default feeds and start adding my own. It’s as easy as pie.

In just a few short minutes, we’ve moved from static bookmarks to having your own personal hub, featuring all the content you want to read. Now let’s look at organising all this information.

4. Organising all of your travel feeds

In the above screencast, I showed how easy it is to grab a feed from a site you want to read and add it to your feed reader. However, if you’re like me, you’ll read a lot of sites and Netvibes is quickly going to get very messy. So we need to start organising things a bit better, otherwise each time you open Netvibes, you’ll be overwhelmed with information.

The best way to begin is to sort out tabs for each topic, just in the way you would separate your files into folders. For example, since I follow a lot of newspaper feeds, I’m going to make a tab just for newspapers, and so on. Then within each of these tabs, I’m going to organise columns, reduce feeds to only display a couple of lines and colour co-ordinate any that need to be distinguished. I made another screencast to show how easy this is:

So that’s all your feeds nicely presented. Now you need to start thinking about how best to visit Netvibes.

5. Replacing your homepage

From now on, each time you visit netvibes.com and sign in, all your information will be there. So you can be on holiday in Iceland and log onto the hotel lobby computers and still find all your travel feeds. You can even visit on your mobile phone. But what about when you’re just at home? I made my feed reader my homepage. That means that when I first open my browser in the morning, every site that I read instantly appears.

You don’t have to use it as a homepage though, you could just bookmark Netvibes and visit it whenever you want to check up on any news. The best part is that it significantly reduces your bookmark folder, as any sites that offer RSS feeds can all be migrated into your Feed Reader and removed from the toolbar.

I wanted to finish on taking Netvibes an extra step further though and not just using it as a personalised homepage, but almost as a browser itself. In the final screencast below, I’ll show how Netvibes enables you to read all of the information in your feeds and how you control and follow what’s new and what you’ve already read.

And that’s that. You know what RSS is, how to best organise feeds and how to read them without clicking outside of the one page! Any questions or something isn’t clear? Just ask in the comments!

Part two: 50 must-have RSS feeds for travellers to help keep on top of all the news.