At 12.00pm today you can register with fifa.com to enter the ballot for tickets to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The first match of the world cup is still 475 days 10 hours and 38 minutes away as I write this blog but with demand expected to be high for all products and services linked with the World Cup forward planning is essential. The matches are being played in 9 different cities within South Africa including Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Pretoria between the 11th June and the 11th July 2010.

Hopefully a few of the home nations will qualify for the World Cup this time round after zero representation at Euro 2008 last summer. If you plan on going out to SA to support your nation we will be offering South African Sat Nav Hire at 10% off if you book before 31st August 2009. Although it does seem a long way off we do anticipate a big demand for sat nav’s for the World Cup so we would recommend getting in early to avoid disappointment and also get a great deal. The last World Cup in Germany in 2006 took us by surprise at the amount of people travelling to see the games. We sold out of sat nav’s well in advance and probably could have hired the same amount again judging by the amount of enquiries we had. To receive your 10% for TomTom Hire South Africa simply type SA2010 into the promotional code box when completing your booking.

To receive a competitive quote for Car Hire for South Africa 2010 please click below.

http://tinyurl.com/bcrvz9

We are proud to be able to offer a £25 voucher which can be used with our new partners at Naked Wines

Naked Wines is a new online wine merchant that offers something slightly different to what you may find in Tesco or Asda. The wines are sourced direct from the winemaker cutting out the middle man so you the consumer receive excellent wines at a low cost. Many of the wines you find in the supermarket are mass produced for the British market. As the retail giants will demand wine at a certain price quality is often compromised. Naked Wines source their wine direct from the passionate smaller winemaker who are more interested and take more pride in the quality of their wines.

Until now it has been hard to find these type of wines in the UK. Naked Wines currently offers 96 wines from 32 small winemakers. As a customer you can also become a wine taster, if chosen Naked Wines will send you samples to taste for you then to give them your feedback.

When you place an order with us for either a sat nav, camcorder or laptop you will receive your voucher with your confirmation email. The voucher has a direct link to the Naked Wines website where you can create an account which will be credited with £25 when you spend £64.99 on a case of wine. This brings the price per bottle down to £3.33 which represents excellent value for money for quality wines.

I have been recently checking prices for airport parking at Gatwick for a forthcoming skiing trip. When travelling to any airport for your holiday you have a few alternatives to get to the airport which all come down to convenience and cost.

Depending on how close you live to the airport the obvious and cheapest way to get to your departure airport is to get a lift from friends or family. However, when you live 100 miles from your airport this option is a big favour to ask your close ones, especially to pick you up as well on your return.

The next option is by trains, buses or taxis. The train or bus option are certainly cheaper than getting a taxi to the airport however quite often they can take twice as long to get to the airport. Not a big issue on your outbound journey but coming home there is nothing worse than a journey that is any longer than it should be. A taxi from Bournemouth to Gatwick (110 miles) will cost between £120-£160 so although convenient this option is certainly the most expensive.

The final option I looked into was driving to Gatwick and leaving my car there. I was surprised at the lower than expected costs of parking at Gatwick. To leave my car there for a week (Saturday to Saturday) prices started from just £34.50 which I thought was excellent value. Of course I will have the additional petrol cost of approximately £30 but this definitely is the best option on the basis of cost and convenience.

This week as you are all aware the UK has grounded to a halt with the snow. According to the clever TomTom HD Traffic technology, there were 1,086 miles of traffic jams on Monday 2 February. The longest queue recorded was 53 miles on the M25 at 07.30. These statistics are gathered by the feedback from up to 16.7 million mobile phone users on the road, which is relayed to TomTom. From this data, TomTom knows exactly what speed these users are travelling at and in what direction.

For users of the TomTom Go 940, 740, 540 Live this traffic information is relayed to their sat nav giving them the opportunity to reroute avoiding traffic black spots. With the current disruption due to snow it has proved an excellent advantage for TomTom users.

If you have one of the above mentioned units and would like to receive this useful information, you need to sign up to the TomTom HD Traffic service which costs £7.99 per month. This also includes weather reports, safety alerts and latest fuel prices. For people who spend many hours of their working day on the road I think the £7.99 per month represents good value for this potentially cost saving information.

As I write this blog, the snow has started again at our office in Poole, Dorset so I can only imagine more disruption on the roads at rush hour tonight is inevitable and those who have subscribed to the TomTom HD traffic may get home slightly earlier than those that have not.

If you subscribe to HD Traffic we would love to hear your comments good or bad on the service.