Dominic Donaldson

It has been said that I am an incurable romantic. I love to be lavished with flowers, and presented with boxes of chocolates wrapped in a big red bow. Being whisked away on romantic breaks and serenaded with beautiful love songs makes my heart skip a beat. A champagne dinner followed by a walk into the sunset is my ideal date. I am so high maintenance that even the Milk Tray man would have trouble impressing me.

With the current climate of cancelled holidays and stranded families camping in airport terminals the tide is changing amongst British holiday makers. More and more of us are looking to our homeland to get away from it all on family holidays and weekend breaks. With the staggering scenery and busting historical cities we are a prime location and until recently it only seems to be the millions of foreign tourists that have realised it.

With tour providers and airlines dropping out of the sky in the current financial turbulence, the plight of many holiday makers has been a rough one recently. Families have been huddling in departure lounges awaiting advice on how they can return home as the company they booked through has recently gone into administration, leading to unexpected expense in the form of inflated airfares from greedy profiteering airlines.

Taking a break from the daily grind is always something to look forward to. Most people set their sights on a sandy beach to soak up the Mediterranean sun and recharge the batteries; but ironically often say that they come back needing a holiday. All the hustle and bustle of airports and passports, travel insurance and immunisations can turn taking a break into a major mission.

An international airport is a hub of activity; with holidaymakers, business people and others travelling en mass, it is essential to create a calm and tranquil atmosphere. It is also important to plan and design the airport so that a large number of people can pass through with minimum disturbance to each other and to the operations within the terminal itself.

Deciding to move to a foreign country or invest in a property overseas to rent out takes a fair bit of investment, and not just of cash. Time, emotions and relationships will be stretched and tried during acquiring an abode abroad. It is wise to enlist all the help you can from an expert to avoid the potential pitfalls involved in property purchase, and ensure that the company is reputable.

Having lived my life by coastal towns in the east of England, I have fond memories of days at the beach and holidays by the sea. Occasionally we were treated to a holiday in a static caravan to avoid being swept into the North Sea by the inevitable summer storms that frequent this green and pleasant land of ours. In all honesty, my memories of summers past seem to have a lot more sun in them than the ones of late have had.

Who does not have a dream of owning a home abroad? As dreary wet afternoons hold us hostage in our urban abodes, fantasies flood our mind of escaping to our own private sunny Idaho on shores far away. To jump on plane with only hand-luggage because all we need is already waiting for us on our arrival. No surrounding motorways and hundreds of other terraced houses under a grey sky.

Isn't it strange how you can live in a country your entire life, yet have little knowledge of what is on your doorstep? How is it possible that people arriving by the plane loads every single day, from countries far away, have more photographic evidence of your home country than you do? The reality is that the world has become a smaller place today and we are all so keen to explore it all, without really giving much appreciation to our local surroundings.

With breathtaking snow capped mountain views, turquoise lakes, glaciers, rainforests, golden beaches, ski fields, whale watching and arguably the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world, it's no surprise that two and a half million people are paying homage and visiting New Zealand every year.

We have all visited a beautiful country and found ourselves lying on a beach of golden sand or bathing in the warm shores, thinking to ourselves, "Ah, I could live here".