British artists & architects have been at the forefront of reshaping one of Austria’s most visited
tourist attractions and their work now rubs shoulders with the Dali’s and Picassos on the walls &
in the crystal rotundas of the world famous Swarovski Crystal World in Wattens, near Innsbruck.

Roxy Music’s Brian Eno, British action artist Jim Whiting, and the award winning British architect
Sir Terance Conran are just some of a team of internationally renowned artists & designers who
recreated Swarovski’s `Crystal Worlds’ exhibition and gallery.

Crystal Worlds is one of Austria’s most visited tourist attractions, after Vienna’s Schoenbrunn
Castle, & has welcomed over 8 million visitors to its interactive museum and art gallery at the
Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens, 20 minutes from the Tirol’s capital, Innsbruck, since 995.
Crystal Worlds is expected to welcome over 700.000 visitors in 2009 alone.

Beware fees for using your credit and debit cards overseas - banks now charging around £750m.
Travellers should check their card statements as banks charge a total of £754 million a year for
overseas transactions – up 6% on 2008.

Double the number of banks, compared with last year, now levies a charge for every debit-card
purchase made outside the UK – an average of £1.13 - says comparison firm Uswitch. Additional
fees bring the total fees for purchases and cash withdrawals to £401m. Add in another £352m in
credit-card fees and the annual total is more than £700m.

Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Cahoot and Intelligent Finance all charge £1.50 each time you use a
debit card abroad. NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland charge £1.25 while Lloyds TSB charges
£1.You will also be charged a foreign loading fee of between 2.75% and 2.99%. It’s even more
expensive if you use a credit card abroad to withdraw cash. A Halifax Classic Mastercard holder
will pay a 2.95% foreign-exchange fee and 3% for withdrawals – equivalent to £29.75 for £500
of cash. Credit-card purchases only incur the foreign exchange fee so the Halifax cardholder will
pay £14.75 on £500 worth of purchases.

Thomson’s flagship Sensatori Resort, Crete has reopened for its second
year of operation following changes over the winter months that now see
dedicated areas for families and couples

The 5-Star resort has some excellent offers for 2009.