Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're dreaming of a great escape or actually making plans.

Today, America opened up this month, and from the correspondence I'm getting, it's clear that many people

are looking at going west in the coming year. But when should you book? Which is best? Confidence

or commitment phobia. I will do my best to help you decide when to buy. Of course,

this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email. You can sign up

at independent.com.uk forward slash newsletters, and it will appear magically in your inbox at 7 o'clock

on Friday morning, British time of course. I've just saved myself nearly £100, very unusually,

in a sense that is. So I am lucky enough to be going back to Florida in the last few days of

November, beginning of December.

It's a time of year.

I just love being there.

Although the days are really quite short,

you don't generally get more than about nine hours of daylight.

The skies are generally very clear.

It's warm during the day and exciting during the evening.

So a great time to be there.

And also, having been there that sort of time over the past four or five years, not counting

2020, of course, I've found that you can generally get a flight for about 350, 400 pounds

return, which for me is good enough. Not this year, though. I have just committed to paying £500, give or take a little bit of change, to go from Gatwick to Orlando and then back to Heathrow, mainly because it's, oddly oddly if there's not much difference in the cost

then Heathrow is slightly easier to get back from into London where I live than Gatwick

basically because British Airways is at North Terminal not south at the moment. Anyway that's not

important right now. I went on,

...