Welcome to another World First Wander – a regular write-up of the hottest new online travel articles with our very own social media man, Tristan Rothwell. It’s a super-speedy way to catch up on your travel reading, so take five minutes out to sit down with a coffee and relax.

Take it away, Tristan!

Greetings once again travel fans. It’s Monday, it’s the World First Wander and, as it’s 31st October, there can only be one topic: Halloween!

Let’s start off close to home in London with The Daily Telegraph’s list of London’s scariest attractions. The Old Operating Theatre looks particularly grim to me! It reminds me of the German Underground Hospital in Guernsey which I visited as a child. That place is guaranteed to creep you out.

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Have you ever dreamt of being a travel writer? We’re launching a brand new monthly travel writing competition and we’re extremely excited to tell you about it. It’s called My World First and it gives you the chance to show off your flair for the written word and entrance us with your travel tales. You can win some great prizes too. Like a Kindle. More on that in a second.

The theme for the competition is world firsts. We want to know about your first-time travel experiences. It could be anything from the first time you flew on a plane to the first time you drove a hire car abroad. Let your creative juices flow. Each month, the entries we receive will be rated by our panel of judges. Their favourite entry and one runner-up will then be published right here on our blog, where they will be read by thousands. To celebrate the launch of the competition, we’re giving away one of Amazon’s popular Kindle e-readers to our first winner.

>> Find out more about what we’re looking for and how you can enter the competition

The Kindle is a remarkable piece of technology, allowing you to store books digitally and read them on screen. For travellers and voracious holiday readers it spells the end of cramming novels into the luggage. It will stop your bookshelf from overflowing too. The 3G Kindle stores up to 3,500 e-books and weighs less than a paperback. New e-books can be downloaded in around 60 seconds and they’re normally cheaper than physical copies. Some are even free.  The screen uses ‘Electronic Ink’ designed to make the Kindle readable in bright sunlight. And just one battery charge lasts for two months. Incredible.

So what are you waiting for? Dust off that dictionary and get writing!

>> Find out more about the competition
>> Read more about why we think the Kindle is great
>> Read the competition terms and conditions

Today is World Osteoporosis Day. Osteoporosis is a disease where the bones lose their density and become weak, leading to painful fractures.

Every three seconds, a bone will break somewhere in the world as a result of the disease. That’s 20 bones a minute. Or 1,200 in an hour. Clearly, awareness needs to be raised. Because osteoporosis is a largely preventable condition.

That’s what World Osteoporosis Day is for. In fact, World Osteoporosis Day kicks off a year-long campaign aimed at helping to prevent the disease, which the International Osteoporosis Foundation argue can be done with three simple lifestyle steps.

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Welcome to another World First Wander. Stop what you’re doing, put the kettle on, and settle down for a quick run through of the latest helpings from some of our favourite travel blogs with our social media man, Tristan Rothwell. This week we’re looking at mobile technology, app-arently.

Take it away, Tristan!

Hello travellers!

It’s time for the World First Wander, our regular rundown of the latest and greatest posts in the travel blogosphere. This week I thought we would have a look at what the travel world thinks is hot in the app world.

It seems there really is “an app for that” with my iPhone (a white one to match my Mac of course), loaded up with Google Plus, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Raven Tools and twelve different camera apps! It doesn’t seem that long ago that I got my first text message – I can see where I was, sat in my kitchen when, ding, ding – my first text. I can’t recall what it said, but I remember who it was from and I am sure it wasn’t polite (thanks Damon if you are reading this).

Now there isn’t a lot I can’t do on my iPhone: tell people where I am with LinkedIn, what I am doing with Twitter and send them a photograph using one of my many camera apps. At World First, we use Twitter as a travel tool and a support channel. On holiday? Got a problem? Just tweet @WFsupport and we’ll be on the case! Here’s the lowdown on what one travel blog had to say about our Twitter use.

Let’s take a look around and see what our travel friends think are the must have travel apps.

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Today is Columbus Day. It’s the day that many countries in the ‘New World’ celebrate as the day when the Americas were first ‘discovered’ by Europeans. But myths of Columbus and his voyage abound. Many believe that Columbus set out to prove that the world was round rather than flat. However, the truth is that Columbus set out to find a western trade route to the Far East. He didn’t even discover the New World first – that claim now goes to Leif Ericson. In fact, Columbus’ famous voyage of 1492 wasn’t plain sailing at all.

Here at World First we’re happy to say that we are able to provide cover for many people who find it hard to get cover elsewhere. We cover people up to the age of 100 as well as those with medical conditions and were the first travel insurance company to offer a policy for travellers living with HIV and AIDS. We also insure families and backpackers and those who take time out to travel the world. But would we have insured Columbus?

Er…. unlikely. Columbus was a travel insurance nightmare.

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Falling behind on your travel reading? Need inspiration for foreign escape? Take five minutes out with our social media man Tristan Rothwell and find out what’s new in the travel blogosphere.

Take it away, Tristan!

Greetings travel fans! It’s time to take a wander around the world of travel again with the World First Weekly Wander. So what’s hot in travel this week?

Well, the first thing I’ve spotted was from Wandering Trader. My first career was actually as a Futures Trader in the Square Mile (and no it wasn’t me that caused the credit crunch before you ask). I spent many years trading the European Futures Markets, so anything trading related will always catch my eye. The Wandering Trader has written a great article titled How Travelling is Breaking my Heart.

We’ve had a couple of great guest posts from amazing writers on our own blog recently. Have you seen them? Travel is one of my favourite things was written by Carrie-Ann Fleming. Carrie-Ann is a keen travel blogger who works for Tourism for All. She’s also a wheelchair user. In this guest post, Carrie explains why she loves travelling and introduces some of the difficulties that face disabled travellers.

Meanwhile, Travel writing – getting started was written by one of our favourite travel bloggers, Quirky Traveller. If you need a bit of help in getting started in travel writing then this post should be your first port of call!

Okay, where to next?

How does Machu Picchu sound? Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was written by Katy Stewart from The Travelers Way.

Now one that never fails to make me giggle (and make everybody in the office wonder what I’m laughing at) is from The Telegraph Travel. Number 156 was one of my favourites. Have a look and tell us which you like!

Now to a more serious note. I might die here is a fascinating interview with Arctic expeditioner Eric Larson which I found on The Matador Network. You can follow them on Twitter here.

I did a piece on travel photography in a recent World First Wander. I’m a keen photographer, although I have to admit that I’m going through a bit of a creative slump at the moment. It happens sometimes. If you’re feeling the same, maybe a look through the lens of The Spunky Girl Monologues will help. Check out that first photograph!

From Namibia we head to Kashmir for a bit of ski action with Go Backpacking, which comes from Twitter’s @rtwdave. This video is awesome.

For more travel awesomeness check Dave’s site out.

Enough of this earth travel. Let’s go intergalactic with Fluent in 3 Months, who tells us What it’s like to attend a Star Trek Convention. Brilliant. Follow the Chief Klingon Speaker on Twitter here.

Last but most certainly not least, I found a beauty from The World Is Waiting. I promise this video will make you laugh.

Well, that wraps up this week’s World First Wander. I hope we’ve inspired you. Let us know what you think. Did we miss a great travel post?  Leave your comments below.

For comprehensive, cost-effective travel insurance visit www.world-first.co.uk.

Twitter fan? Twitter foe? We can help you, either way. Here’s how.

We love it when we get good feedback. Especially when it comes as a result of something new we’re trying. See, we think engaging with customers and fellow travel-lovers is really important. Write to us, we’ll write back. Call us, we’ll be ready to listen. Email us, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Now we’re using popular social networking phenomenon Twitter to talk to people too. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“You’re outstanding with Twitter” read a tweet directed at us recently. It was from a travel blog called Mega Mondo Travel and it linked to a post they published recently about how Twitter can be such a useful resource for travellers. The travel blog gave their readers a list of “must follow” organisations that are using Twitter to “serve the needs of travellers”. We were one of just five names included in the list.

You can read the full post here. But this is what they had to say about us:

World First Travel Insurance is the only travel insurance company in the world that offers support to its policy holders via Twitter. We tested their Twitter channel with a query of a snatched wallet on the Dubai Metro and were impressed at their prompt and concerned response. We had a personal representative contact us (@WFTristan) as well as the main Twitter channel. When we didn’t reply to the first tweet, they were persistent; proof of their dedication and understanding.

We accept that Twitter’s not for everyone. But it really helps to add a new dimension to the way we can reach you, and you can reach us. Here’s a breakdown of the ways we use Twitter to help our customers and travel-lovers everywhere. Including you.

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The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office has changed its travel advice for those travelling to Kenya. They now advise against all but essential travel to coastal areas within 150km of the Somali border. The expansion of the 60km no-go zone that was previously suggested follows the kidnapping of a French woman by Somali bandits on 1st October. Her husband was shot dead in the attack.

Official FCO advice now states:

We advise against all but essential travel to coastal areas within 150km of the Somali border, following two attacks by armed gangs in small boats against beach resorts in the Lamu area on 11 September and 1 October 2011.  This advice will be kept under review.  Both attacks were on beach-front properties, with two Westerners kidnapped and one murdered.  Beach-front accommodation in that area and boats off the coast are vulnerable.

The full advice can be found on the FCO website.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned against copycat killings: “We are seeing possibly copycat kidnappings taking place. That is very alarming. We are working with the Kenyan authorities and urging them to improve security in any way they can.”

So where do you stand if you have plans to visit Kenya within the coming days or weeks? Well, you’ll need to keep a close eye on how the FCO’s advice develops. Currently, the FCO are advising against all but essential travel to certain parts of Kenya. Travelling against this advice will invalidate your travel insurance policy. So if something unexpected happened while you were in Kenya you would not be covered for it, no matter how unrelated it was to the current unrest.

What if you have a holiday booked to one of the affected areas? Well, you might have to cancel it. But your money should be safe. In this situation, ABTA bonded travel agents and tour operators are expected to provide their customers with an alternative holiday or issue a full refund on any money paid. You can find out more in the FAQs section of ABTA’s website.

For cost-effective, comprehensive travel insurance visit www.world-first.co.uk.

Carrie-Ann Fleming is a keen travel blogger who works for Tourism for All. She’s also a wheelchair user. In this guest post, Carrie explains why she loves travelling and introduces some of the difficulties that face disabled travellers.

I love the thrill of being somewhere new, full of people to meet, and the excitement and anticipation that comes with being in a strange place. Growing up in a small town makes feeling anonymous quite nice!

For most of my life I travelled ‘mainstream’ – booking hotels through a high street travel agent, hobbling on to transfer coaches, re-arranging furniture in the room to accommodate my wheelchair. Luckily, I’m quite mobile; I have cerebral palsy affecting my lower half but have been known to fling myself up a flight of stairs when the mood has taken me! But it wasn’t until I started working for Tourism for All that I realised travel can be made a lot easier.

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We’re proud of our business. But we think the people who are best placed to comment on our service are our customers. That’s why we ask for feedback and read every piece. After all, we want to be the best. But there’s always room for improvement. We know because you told us.

Here’s how it works. Whenever someone buys a new policy with us, we ask them to rate their experience of our service out of 10 – 10 being the best. We also ask each customer if they think there’s anything we could do to improve our service. Each month we’re going to give you a rundown of the feedback we get, right here on the blog.

So far this month (September), we’ve received more than 250 pieces of feedback. The average service rating is currently just above 9 out of 10. We’ve received several ideas for improvements too. You can read some of them below, together with thoughts on each from our Managing Partner. Also, read what expert consumer travel advisor Gill Charlton said about our service in The Telegraph here: World First Travel Insurance review.

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