Cathay Pacific is adding 20 extra return flights a week under its winter schedule between October 29 and March 24, strengthening its links to seven regional cities: Cebu, Denpasar (Bali), Hanoi, Jakarta, Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei. The biggest increase is in flights to Taipei, with seven extra each week. Cathay will also launch an in-flight food promotion on October 1, featuring dishes from Central's Yung Kee Restaurant for six months in all classes on its 48 daily flights from the SAR. There will be 33 dishes specially prepared by Yung Kee, one of Hong Kong's best-known restaurants since the 1960s, including its signature roast goose. After six months, dishes from another restaurant will be featured on Cathay flights from Chek Lap Kok. Most of us are happy enough reading a guide book to plan our holidays, but a new Web site actually allows individuals to have a trip tailor-made by the author. It's a lot more costly than just reading the book, though. Consultations with authors on www.12degrees.com cost between US$75 and $100 (HK$585 and HK$780) an hour, with an estimate given before the consultation takes place. The site lists more than 30 authors who can help plan a trip suitable to your requirements. The writers have been published with guide brands such as Lonely Planet and Fodor. Business travellers who like to shake off jet lag or sharpen their minds for that early morning meeting can turn their bedroom into a fitness centre at Ritz-Carlton hotels in Osaka, Shanghai, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong. An in-room fitness kit is available - consisting of weights, exercise mats and VCR with video tapes - for around US$30 per day. If you really want to burn up those calories you gained in-flight, then the hotels will also deliver to your room exercise bikes, walking machines, treadmills and heart-rate monitors. Working on the principle that travellers exercise according to their body clocks, not time zones, the chain says workouts won't have to be missed even when the hotel gyms are closed. Guam will plumb the depths in its Hallowe'en celebrations, with an underwater pumpkin-carving competition on Saturday October 28. More than 250 divers of all ages are expected to compete for US$10,000 worth of prizes, including for most original pumpkin, scariest and funniest. The carvings will be done at a depth of five metres, and all entrants must be certified divers. The entrance fee is US$95, but this includes hotel transfers, tank rental, a T-shirt and lunch. Contact the Guam Visitors' Centre in Hong Kong. Tel 2522 1386, fax 2522 0772. Nearly 3,000 cruise passengers found themselves adrift this month when their ships were seized by creditors. The six ships from Premier Cruise Lines were taken over in the US, the Bahamas and Mexico. All passengers were provided with transport home, with the fares covered by the Federal Maritime Commission, while procedures for refunds would 'be available in the near future', the company said. Premier, which is based in Florida, made a loss of US$20 million (HK$156 million) last year and sacked about 10 per cent of its work force this summer. Dragonair will be running direct flights to Kathmandu in Nepal twice weekly from October 29, on Thursdays and Sundays. Package deals will be available. Air New Zealand has launched 'Southern Horizons' package deals, priced from HK$7,280 on a twin-sharing basis for three nights on North Island. Tours of up to nine nights are available, plus fly-drive packages with travel by car or camper van. Contact your travel agent or check out the Web site www.airnewzealand.com