With Glastonbury and Reading festivals just around the corner, it’s time to heave aside the pinstripes and spreadsheets and to embrace your inner cool. And though we’re big fans of the big festivals, we thought we’d take a look at some of the smaller set-ups that sometimes slip under the radar.

And if you’re heading to a festival this summer, why not hire a larger car or people carrier from Avis to get you, your mates and all of your stuff there in total comfort? – As we all know there is never quite enough room for everyone and everything in a small car.

Indietracks – 23-25 July 2010
Near Ripley, Derbyshire
A hidden gem for the lucky 2,500 who get tickets. Bands play in a train shed or on moving trains: trippy. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart headline, along with plenty of off-the-grid new talent.

National Forest Folk Festival – 2-4 July 2010
Conkers, near Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire
A natural outdoor amphitheatre in a forest with Adrian Edmondson and The Bad Shepherds, Eliza Carthy and Saul Rose, Lau and the Peatbog Faeries. Bring your woggle.

The Secret Garden Party – 22-25 July 2010
Near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
A Fact or Fiction theme plus the Gorillaz Sound System and Mercury Rev competing with the Suicide Sports Amphitheatre, 20ft punch fountains and the Kissing Den. And busboys to carry your bags if you really must.

International Gypsy Guitar Festival – 30 July-1 August 2010
Cam, Dursley, Gloucestershire
Paulus Schafer, Antonio Forcione and Andreas Oberg twang guitars in a small but perfectly formed festival. Bring your guitar, fiddle or double bass and jam.

Truck – 23-25 July 2010
Steventon, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire
No advertising or sponsorship, just young up-and-coming bands plus Bellowhead, Pulled Apart by Horses and Steve Mason. Village fete meets Woodstock, where the local vicar runs the tea stall.

Rame Dance Festival – 2-4 July 2010
Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall
Small-scale event by the beach. It’s dance plus live bands, experimental cabaret, open mike and a dance tent with reggae and dance tunes. Hire a teepee and get that mike.

North Wales Bluegrass Festival – 1-4 July 2010
Conwy, Wales
The 22nd year of this humdinger, where you can catch Jeni Hankin and Billy Kemp, Brian Golbey, Chill Until Blue and Chris Moreton.

Summer Swing – 6-10 July 2010
Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey
What to do when you grow up? Get down to Kew for Jools Holland, Björn Again and a Queen symphonic spectacular suite. Dahling, did you pack the organic terrine?

The Big Chill Festival – 5-8 August 2010
Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, Herefordshire
Massive Attack and Lily Allen are the biggies, with a lucky dip of alternative, reggae, electronica, dance and chill-out music and comedy – from seasoned to green. Film, art, cabaret, poetry and some really, really good food stalls.

2000trees Festival – 16-17 July 2010
Withington, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
50 acts encompassing rock and indie, folk and metal, pop and experimental, with campfire sing-a-longs and famous headphone disco. Watch out for Frank Turner and Your Twenties and The Xcerts.

These are just a few of the smaller festivals we think you might like to visit, but if you think there are other great festivals that we have missed off please let us know.

Forget about badly organised coach trips from your holiday resort; the best way to experience the sights, culture and way of life of a country, is to take a road trip. And being able to hire a car at any Avis branch across the world makes road trips a real option, not just a daydream!

The home of the great road trip has to be the United States, with thousands of miles of wide open highway criss-crossing America and creating some of the most famous road trips in the world. The iconic Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica takes in 2,400 miles of ever changing country, while the Pacific Coast Highway includes the magnificent Big Sur. On the East Coast, you can drive all the way from New England to the southern tip of the Florida Overseas Highway, with its 43 bridges across the Florida Keys.

World wide, there are lots more thrilling drives for you to enjoy with a little help from Avis. The Savannah Way carries you 2,300 miles from coast to coast in Australia, from Cairns, in Queensland to Broom on the west coast, via 15 stunning national parks. Discover the spectacular settings for Lord of the Rings by driving the 300 miles of New Zealand’s South Island, or drive across Canada, taking in incredible wildlife and wilderness along the 5,000 miles of the Trans Canada Highway – a trip that makes Avis GPS an essential extra.

Europe too has some stunning drives right on your doorstep, so you don’t have to fly off around the world to enjoy a classic road trip. From the French Riviera to Italy’s beautiful Amalfi Coast, from Finland’s 1000 Lakes to the ethereal beauty of Iceland, there’s so much to see. Head for Central Europe and put your driving skills to the test with the twisting, winding Alpine passes. Great St. Bernard Pass, in Switzerland and Grossglockner High Alpine Road in Austria, both offer breathtaking views. These can be quite challenging but having an extra driver gives you a chance to enjoy some of the scenery and sharing the drive.

And don’t forget about the top road trips you can take right here at home, from the Devon and Cornwall coasts, to the historic Highlands of Scotland, plus of course, the all time classic Lands End to John O’Groats run.

Renting a car from Avis gives you the freedom to explore anywhere you want, in your own time and the way you want. Plus, you can choose the perfect car for any journey, be it a convertibles for Route 66 or a 4×4 for the Australian Outback. And thanks to the convenience of one-way rentals, one-way trips are no problem.

So this summer, forget the bland resort holiday full of fellow Brits; head out and discover the real world on an original road trip with Avis Car Rental Rent a Car.

We’ve all seen those early summer cars – packed to the roof with quilts and cuddly toys, clothes and portable TVs, as parents struggle to get their kids home from university in just one trip. But why squash it all in and stress your suspension, when Avis Car Rental can provide the perfect ride with all the space you need?

The annual migration home from Britain’s universities will be all too familiar to many parents. Trekking halfway across the country in comfort only to have the car filled to bursting with a year’s worth of student stuff, plus your beloved offspring, for the return journey. Not to mention a term’s worth of dirty clothes packed in black bags for Mum to wash!

The toll it takes on your car just doesn’t bear thinking about – extra miles, extra weight, extra fuel – and it’s usually uncomfortable and often frankly dangerous too, as their delightful CD collection all but blocks the view out of the back window. Worst of all, you know full well you’ll only have to do it all again in reverse in a few months time.

Well this year, call Avis and give yourself, and your car, a well earned break. The extensive Avis fleet includes a wide range of estate cars and people carriers specifically designed to carry larger loads in comfort and safety.

Choose a spacious estate or the flexibility of a people carrier. Who knows, you might have enough space to be able to share the ride home with another student and halve the costs for everyone. Check out liftshare.com to see who else is going your way.

Whichever you choose, renting a car from Avis means you’ll get it all done in one trip, with no wear and tear on your own car, or your nerves. And with Avis’s great value rentals and fuel-efficient late model vehicles, that could mean quite a saving.

If, like many students, your child has taken it upon themselves to move as far away as possible to study, (while still expecting you to fetch and carry them of course) it’s well worth adding an extra driver to share the load. An Avis GPS could also be a good value investment to ensure you take the most efficient route and avoid all the traffic jams along the way.

Short of abandoning them to make their own way home, the university run is a summer tradition that can’t be avoided. But with a little planning and the help of the friendly team at Avis Car Rental, it needn’t be such a chore this year.

We are aware that a lot of our customers start their journey with a flight and some of them may be affected by the upcoming BA cabin crew strike. If, due to this strike you need to modify your travel arrangements, here is some information on how to make changes to your car rental booking with Avis.

Note from Avis BA Partnerships Team:

The forthcoming British Airways cabin crew strike, starting tomorrow and taking place on 20, 21, 22 March and 27, 28 , 29, 30 March, may be affecting your car rental requirements. We’d like to take this opportunity to outline your options if you have a car reserved with us over this period.

If you have a pay-later reservation and need to cancel or amend it, please call the BA Partnership Dedicated line at our Call Centre on 0844 581 0124 and one of our agents will make the necessary arrangements for you. The sooner you can cancel or amend your booking the easier will be to find a suitable alternative to your original reservation.

If you have pre-paid for your rental and need to amend or cancel, again please contact our dedicated line at the Call Centre on 0844 581 0124. If you need to request a refund, please send the request along with your Avis reservation number to:

Avis Rent a Car Ltd
Customer Services
Avis House
Park Road
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 2EW
United Kingdom

If you booked your Avis car directly with British Airways either at ba.com or with a BA Call Centre, please contact their Customer Services Duty Office to make any amendments or cancellations:

Telephone: +44 208 707 4461
Email address: duty.office@holidays.britishairways.com

Please contact us as soon as possible with your revised requirements. Thank you for your patience and understanding during these exceptional circumstances.

Have you ever been in that situation where you’ve been to an offer page , seen a banner advertising that “incredible discount”, but when it came to book you couldn’t get the right price?

This is what happened to one of our customer, who despite booking a car during the Avis New Year Sale period, she’d seen advertised on our email newsletter, was unable to get the advertised car hire discount. I thought it would be useful to share her experience & attempt to clarify how these promotions work, so next time you don’t miss out on the chance to get the best price for your car hire.

Most of Avis’s discounts are driven by a promotional code which we embed on our offer/sale promotional pages, newsletter links and internal and external banners. When a customer visits one of these landing pages or clicks from one of the links or banners, then proceeds to book, the discount is automatically applied to the price.

If however the visitor sees the banner or the newsletter advertising a specific discount but instead of following the promotional link or banner, goes straight to the booking engine on the Avis home page, the code is not activated and therefore the discount is not applied.

This is always specified in the landing pages, but following the customer’s comment we will make sure to have it even more prominent.

Of course all promotions are subject to availability and to specific terms and conditions which are always state at the bottom of our landing pages, so make sure you read carefully.

Hope this helps! But if you have any other questions please let us know or visit our FAQs page.

Did you know that fuel consumption can vary by up to 45% on the same route depending on how you drive? As well as renting from our new, fuel-efficient Avis Eco Collection, by following our Eco Driving Tips you can save money and reduce your emissions on all your car journeys:

1) Plan your journeys.
Plan your journeys to avoid peak periods, road works and getting lost – you will have a more relaxing journey and will waste less fuel.

2) Drive smoothly
Try to avoid harsh acceleration and braking – pulling away too fast can use up 60% more fuel.

3) Traffic jams
If stuck in a traffic jam for more than a couple of minutes, turn off the engine to cut exhaust emissions and conserve fuel.

4) Change gear efficiently.
Change gear at 1500 to 2500 rpm can save up to 15% on fuel – and reduce emissions by the same amount.

5) Avoid short journeys.
Short journeys on a cold engine use up to twice as much fuel as a warmed up engine – producing more pollution.

6) Limit your speed.
Optimise your fuel consumption, reduce your emissions and avoid speeding fines by observing the speed limit.

7) Concentrate
Look ahead and anticipate the road conditions and other people’s actions – this reduces the need for hard braking and acceleration.

8 ) Keep you cool.
Using air vents rather than opening windows can reduce fuel consumption by 4%, while air conditioning can increase fuel consumption by up to 2 litres per 100km.

9) Don’t Rev
Avoid revving the engine unnecessarily – this wastes fuel and increases harmful emissions.

10) Drive Carbon Neutral®
Avis is proud to be the first car rental company in the world to offer Carbon Neutral® driving to all its customers. If you would like to absorb the CO2 emissions from your next car hire please speak to one of our station staff who will be keen to help you. For more information on carbon offsetting your car rental please visit www.avis.co.uk/environment.

To download an illustrated PDF with all of our Eco Driving tips, click here, why not share them with your friends and family?

With wind, rain, ice and snow – winter can throw the very worst at us. So to help make sure you are prepared when travelling by car this season, here’s some helpful advice from the Highways Agency.

For a smoother journey check your vehicle is ready for winter.
Regularly servicing and checking your vehicle is in good running order before setting out, will reduce your chances of breaking down on the road. It’s worth making these checks regularly – especially before a long journey:

• Check and replace the anti-freeze in the radiator
• Make sure your lights are clean and check the bulbs
• Ensure your windscreen is clean
• Replace the battery if it’s not reliable
• Ensure your tyres are correctly inflated and replace them if the tread has reached the legal minimum. For further information please see www.tyresafe.org

For peace of mind always carry an emergency kit.
Gather a few items and keep them in your car – just in case. Below are items that should be in your Emergency Kit:

• Ice scraper and de-icer
• Torch and spare batteries
• Warm clothes and a blanket
• Boots
• First aid kit
• Jump leads
• Food and a warm drink in a thermos
• A shovel
• Reflective warning sign
• Sunglasses – the glare off snow can be dazzling

For a safer journey adapt your driving in bad weather.
Even after roads have been treated, driving conditions may remain challenging especially on stretches of road where there’s greater risk of side winds or of ice forming. These include places where: –

• There are changes in road elevation or exposure
• Where the road passes under a bridge
• Objects at the side of the road create shade
• There is infrequent traffic

It’s also advisable to slow down on corners where the risk of losing control is at its greatest.

Be a smarter driver – check traffic and weather updates.
Before you set off it’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure that there aren’t any problems on your intended route. You can check for live updates as you travel too – but remember not to use your phone while driving.

• Visit http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic/traffic.aspx
• Check the weather at the metoffice
• Call the Highways Agency information line on 08457 50 40 30
• Tune into DAB Traffic Radio

Remember to take regular breaks from driving – tiredness and loss of concentration are major contributing factors to road accidents.

Think ahead move ahead.

Avis supporting

I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the mountains since starting to snowboard in 1995, and to be honest I’ve tried most methods of getting out into Europe. 15 hour road trips in the back of unheated windowless Sprinter vans potentially being the highlight.

I’ve found over the years, flying into Geneva or Lyon and then self driving through Avis is an excellent way of tackling the transfer and still retaining independence while in the mountains. I love to explore, and having a hire car allows me that pleasure. This road trip takes you from Lyon Airport all the way to the highest city in France, Briancon and some of the ski resorts worth stopping at in between.

From Lyon airport you should head for Grenoble into the Daulphiné Alps and the Ecrins National Park and some fantastic ski resorts that will suit everyone from total beginners to hardened pro riders and off piste specialists.

The first main resort you will come across is L’Alp D’Huez, a famous stop on the Tour de France. The summit at Pic Du Blanc is an impressive 3300m and apparently has the longest pisted run in Europe at 16km. With 240km of runs and 2 snow parks there should be plenty to keep you occupied. My tip would be to take the “Alpette Rousses” lift up to “Dome de Petite Rousses” to get away from the crowds and marvel at the top lift station and its precarious position atop a 400metre cliff.

A few kilometres further down the valley towards Briancon is a right turn to Les Deux Alps, the party town of this part of the Alps. Bars, clubs and eating a plenty. My personal favourite being the Avalanche Club, although I can’t recall much from my time inside this little gem that is open till the small hours of the morning. The resort goes up to 3600m and has 225km of pistes. Glacier riding in the summer, 2 freestyle parks and smaller parks if you like jumps, spins and rails. You can access best high alpine area in the Southern Alps, La Grave, from here. If you like alpine charm character then head down to the little hamlet of Venosc from the main resort. Traditional building set in the depths of the Venosc valley below L2A.

20 minutes further up the valley towards Briancon is La Grave, although patrolled its total un-pisted and has no formal avalanche controls. Its high, it’s dangerous and should not be considered unless you know what you are doing or have hired a guide from Bureau des Guides de La Grave – La Meije. The area has unsurpassed off piste and 2150m vertical descent as well as some of the most amazing mountain scenery in this part of the Alps. Its also worth noting that the small restaurant at 3200m does an awesome steak, chips and tea, useful when its -32C outside.

From La Grave head towards Briancon and you’ll come over the high mountain pass of the Col Du Lautaret at 2053m, this is often closed due to snow falls. From here it’s all down hill to our last stop, the highest city in France and the sprawling ski area of Serre Chevalier. The three communities of Monetier / Chantemerle and Braincon link up to create a vast ski area of 250km of piste up to 2800m. Probably the most French and family orientated of the resorts in the area, which offers a wide range facilities and riding potential. It has great off piste and tree riding, plus a couple of parks. Briancon itself has a fascinating history and fortifications dating back to the 17th century, so if you do get this far then certainly take the time to drive down into the town and explore…Oh and its has the only McDonalds for about 2 hours…I’m sure some people will be interested in that.

View Lyon to Briancon in a larger map

We know that many drivers are unsure of how to cope with conditions on the roads during the winter months. And it’s not just ice and snow which cause problems. You also need to take extra special care when there is fog, wind, rain, wet leaves and glare from the sun!

We have teamed up with Interactive Driving Systems, to help you become more aware of the risks and keep you safe when you are driving this winter.

Our top 10 tips for driving in the winter
1) Check the weather conditions before you set out.
2) Keep your distance from the car in front – it can take 10 times longer to stop in icy conditions and twice as long in wet conditions.
3) Drive carefully in a low gear .
4) Do not brake suddenly – as this can cause you to skid. If you do skid, steer in the direction of it
5) Leave plenty of time for your journey.
6) Use dipped headlights in fog and in thick fog use fog lights, but don’t forget to turn them off once conditions improve.
7) Don’t drive through flood water .
8 ) Make sure you have plenty of fuel and keep an emergency kit in the car (warm clothing, boots, flashlight, food and drink, blankets and a high-visibility jacket).
9) Tell someone about your journey and let them know when you have arrived .
10) Keep your mobile phone with you and the number of a breakdown company.

If you have any other tips to stay safe this winter let us know.

Apparently it’s all relative, time, space…and even which side of the road is right and which one is wrong.

I’ve recently passed my driving test in the UK and having originally learnt to drive in Italy, and have to admit that the first impact with driving on the left, was well, interesting. As my driving instructor eloquently put it, in the UK: “left is right and right is wrong…”, and that little mantra will probably stick with me forever.

But that got me thinking about all the British drivers who every day cross the Channel and face the slight disconcerting feeling of looking at the world suddenly flowing in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately I don’t have a catchy phrase for that, but I’ve tried to collect a short list of tips which I hope you could find useful:

1) Keep right: obvious as it sounds, that’s the golden rule when driving in Europe the USA and most other countries outside the UK. Right lane is your regular navigation lane whereas the left one is for overtaking.

Bear in mind that the side of the road is not the only thing you have to consider when driving abroad. Of course most road signs and general rules are the same but others vary by country. In Italy for example you normally give way to vehicles coming from the right, but if you are driving roundabout you have to give way to traffic coming from the left.

2) Watch your speed: when you drive the “wrong side of the road” you will have to fight rather than rely upon some of your basic instincts, and if total concentration is paramount, driving at a moderate speed will give your brain that extra time needed to assess the situation and make the right decision in an unfamiliar situation.

3) Follow the crowd: I know this could sound obvious but paying attention to what other road users are doing is usually the best way to get, and stay, on the right side of the road when pulling out off a parking space or exiting a junction.
This is especially important when coming out of a junctions or…negotiating your way across a roundabout.
Of course if you are coming out an airport car park, chances as your fellow drivers might be as clueless as you are…. so be careful!

4) Take your time: Make sure you take few moments to familiarise with your car before you set off. No matter where you drive, pedals will be in the same, but when you drive in Europe for example, the steering wheel and the stick gear will be on your right so you will have to learn to change gear with your right hand. Doesn’t take long to get use to it, but if you feel this could be an issue for you, you might want to consider going for an automatic car.

5) Mind the curb: gauging distances when you suddenly have the bulk of your car on your right instead of your left might be tricky especially when you are trying to find your way around those picturesque, narrow passages that are so popular in Italy, Spain and France. So once again be careful and allow plenty of space when overtaking.

I hope these tips help, but if you have any others of your own please let us know.