Holidays in Heaven

Malaga: The Forgotten City

2005-09-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

Malaga is far more than just a portal to the costas, as Cathy Packe discovers

WHERE?

The capital of the Costa del Sol sits at the point on the Mediterranean coast where the Spanish peninsula begins to dip down towards the Straits of Gibraltar. The city is dominated by the Gibralfaro hill, from which there are superb views in every direction; on a clear day you can see across to North Africa.

Immediately below is the bullring, and from there, heading west, is Malaga's main thoroughfare, the leafy Paseo del Parque, which leads into the Alameda Principal and, eventually, to the Guadalmedina river. North of the main drag is the old centre with its museums, pleasant squares and attractive churches; the beaches stretch for several miles to the east of the city.

The main tourist office is near the centre, at Pasaje Chinitas 4 (00 34 952 213 445), an alley tucked away behind Plaza de la Constitucion. It opens 9am-8.30pm Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-2pm on Sunday. This is a good area for shopping, too, in the pedestrian streets between Calle Larios and Plaza Felix Saenz. If you want everything under one roof, try the vast Corte Ingles department store at Avenida Andalucia 4-6 (00 34 952 076 500), which opens 10am-10pm Monday to Saturday.

The airport is 7km west of the city. The suburban trains on line C1 stop at the airport on their way from Fuengirola to Malaga's main station and on to the more convenient Centro Alameda stop. They run every half hour, take 15 minutes and cost €1.05 (75p) for a one-way trip. Bus 19 is also a possibility; it leaves every 20 minutes or so from the airport and runs into town along the main Alameda Principal, which is convenient for many places to stay. It takes around half an hour and costs €1.20 (85p).

Malaga has fewer hotels than many of the other places along the coast, so it can get very booked up. The Hotel Larios at Calle Marques de Larios 2 (00 34 952 222 200) is on a pedestrianised street right in the city centre, and offers the personal attention typical of a smallish, boutique hotel.

It has a stunning roof terrace, where there is nightly entertainment, ranging from jazz nights to film shows; these will move inside to the new L2 bistro lounge in the autumn. Rooms here start at €160.50 (£115), with €12 (£9) for breakfast.

On a more modest scale further down the same street, the Hostal Larios, on the third floor at Calle Larios 9 (00 34 952 225 490), has double rooms from €60 (£43), singles from €49 (£35), without breakfast. There are few hotels on the beach, but the Hotel Las Vegas is only a block away at Paseo de Sancha 22 (00 34 952 217 712). Double rooms are available from €94 (£67), singles from €76 (£54); breakfast is an extra €6.25 (£4.50).

Malaga is a lively city at night. Most of the late-night action is around Plaza de Uncibay, where there are lots of clubs and bars; Onda Pasadena on Calle Pallete is a bohemian jazz club that opens late and stays open until well after most people have had breakfast. For free entertainment, many of the locals take a bottle and sit chatting and playing guitars in Plaza de la Merced.

WHY?

Malaga is Andalucia's forgotten city. Those in the know have started to come here in preference to Seville, attracted by its architecture, museums, shops and, crucially, the lack of tourists. Although people flock into Malaga airport on their way to the Costa del Sol, most bypass Malaga itself, leaving behind a relaxed city whose inhabitants are happy to welcome visitors.

WHAT?

Malaga's main attraction is the Picasso Museum in the newly restored Palacio de Buenavista at Calle San Augustin 8 (00 34 952 602 731). It contains more than 200 works by the artist, donated or loaned to the museum by members of his family, and representing every period of his work. The museum opens 10am-8pm from Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, 10am-9pm Friday and Saturday. Admission is €6 (£4.30), with an extra €4 (£2.85) for the regularly changing special exhibitions; the next of these opens on 24 October and looks at mythology in the artist's work.

The house at Plaza de la Merced 15 (00 34 952 060 215) where Picasso was born and spent the first 10 years of his life is also open to the public. Although its contents pale in comparison with those of the Picasso Museum, it contains some interesting sketches, ceramics and family photographs. It opens 10am-8pm from Monday to Saturday, and 10am-2pm on Sunday; admission is €1 (70p).

Elsewhere in the city are traces of Malaga's varied past. The ruins of Gibralfaro Castle, which was built by the Moors, are on a site once occupied by the Phoenicians. The museum inside the castle chronicles the town's history and opens 9am-7.45pm daily; admission costs €1.80 (£1.30).

Down the hill, and with walls connecting it to the castle ruins, is the restored Moorish fortress or Alcazaba at Calle Alcazabilla (00 34 952 227 230). It opens 9.30am-8pm daily except Monday, and 8.30am-7pm in winter. Admission is €1.90 (£1.35), but is free after 2pm on Sunday. In the heart of Malaga is its 16th-century cathedral on Calle Molina Larios (00 34 952 22 84 91).

It is an imposing building with an impressive façade, notable for the fact that only one tower has ever been finished; this has earned it the nickname of "la manquita", or the one-armed lady. Admission to the cathedral is €3.50 (£2.50), and it opens 10am-6pm Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm on Saturday, and for mass only on Sunday.

British Airways, operated by GB Airways, flies to Malaga from London Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester.

FIVE FOR FOOD AND DRINK

El Palo, east of the city centre, is the latest place to eat, and El Tintero (00 34 952 204 464), on Playa del Dedo at the point when the coast road comes to an end, is one of its most popular restaurants. Fried fish is served on different sized plates designed for sharing, with prices starting at €5 (£3.50) a plate. It opens every day from 1pm-4.30pm and 7.30pm until midnight or later.

The Café de Paris, at Calle Velez Malaga 8 (00 34 952 225 043) is one of the finest restaurants in the city. The menu reflects what is available locally, and there is a "market menu", varying every day, for €39 (£28). It opens from 1.30pm-3pm Monday to Saturday, and 8.30pm-10.30pm Tuesday to Saturday.

El Piyayo, at Calle Granada 36 (00 34 952 220 096), is a great place for tapas and is often packed late into the night. House specialities include fried anchovies, and cod in a tomato sauce. It opens 1pm-4pm and 8pm until midnight daily, and until 1am at weekends.

El Chinitas, at Calle Moreno Monroy 4 (00 34 952 210 972), is a long-established city centre restaurant serving a good selection of regional specialities. It opens 1pm-4pm and 8pm-midnight daily.

El Pimpi, at Calle Granada 62 (00 34 952 228 990) is a popular city centre venue and a good place to drop in for a drink; the tapas are also excellent. It opens from 12pm-2am Tuesday to Sunday, and from 6pm on Monday.
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Edited from an article in The Independent, Travel, Cathy Packe (Independent Online).

Cricket — Now Book A Holiday

2005-09-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

As most English cricket-lovers have been biting their nails to the quick, the smart ones have been picking up the phone. Travel-and-ticket packages for the team’s next three big challenges — the Test tour of India in spring; the Ashes in Australia, around Christmas 2006; and the World Cup in the Caribbean a few months later — are going fast.

Many dates and venues have not even been finalised, but specialist tour operators have been inundated with fans pre-registering to secure their places. “Since Michael Vaughan and the boys won the series, registrations have been up by 300%,” says Kuoni Sport Abroad (01306 744345).

You’ll need to post a £125 refundable deposit to give yourself the best chance of match-day tickets. “We’re confident we can get places for everyone who’s registered so far, but things are getting tight, especially for Australia."

“We’re expecting a big surge in demand this week, as the Ashes are decided,” says Gullivers Sports Travel (01684 293175). “If you want to follow the team, it’s a good idea to get in quick.”

Audley Travel is planning itineraries through Guyana in early 2007, which will incorporate an England fixture in the World Cup. Call Audley on 01869 276235 to register your interest.
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There’s another reason to stockpile annual leave for the World Cup in the West Indies — low-cost island-hopping in the traditionally pricey Caribbean has just been given a significant boost.

A new ferry service has been launched linking Barbados, Guadeloupe and points in between.

The Star Ferry service (00 1 246 422 0546) comes in the wake of EasyCruise’s new low-cost Caribbean itinerary, with a high-speed vessel calling at Barbados, St Lucia, St Martin, Dominica, Martinique, Marie-Galante and Guadeloupe. It plans to expand the network further in 2007, just in time for the World Cup — so now you can follow Freddie Flintoff and the gang on the cheap.

Bracing Exercise, Fine Cuisine - The Perfect European Match

2005-09-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Autumn is coming to Europe, and as the air cools and the crowds disperse, now’s the time for an outdoors adventure. It’s the best way to justify some serious holiday gluttony. Anthony Peregrine proves the point in southeast France

It’s September, and what lies ahead? The refitting of school uniforms, wall-to-wall party conferences, shortening days and darkening nights. Also conker competitions and firework displays. Vital matters, all. But if I were to suggest a week in the maturing Mediterranean sun, combining a certain amount of inspiring exercise with a healthy portion of excellent eating, might you not be tempted?

Nobody will blame you for escaping south for a few days this autumn, especially as there’s such a fine spread of gastronomic activity breaks on offer. The sun will still be fully present, but shorn of its high-season bite. Perfect, therefore, for doing something mildly — very mildly — strenuous without risk of melting. You could cycle, ride or kayak, but, personally, I prefer to trust my own two legs (which don’t get punctures, gallop off unexpectedly or sink).

I chose a week in the lip-smacking Gardon gorges, near Nîmes: walking by day and rewarding myself with southern French cooking on balmy restaurant terraces each evening. Part of the point of a trip like this is to sabotage the healthy daytime stuff with evening-tide shamelessness — and, blissfully, activity-holiday companies are becoming aware of this. Increasingly, they’ll not just send you a route, they’ll book you several delectable tables at strategic dining points along it. It’s all about getting the right life balance.

I felt awfully smug when I finished the walk. Then again, I felt pretty smug when I started it. I spent my first day strolling the tight-packed medieval streets of Uzès, turning down a chance to visit the Ducal Palace (12 euros? For that kind of money, I’d expect a droit de cuissage) and instead taking a pastis among the trees and arcades of the central square. In the late- afternoon sun, the stone buildings glowed with the light and heat of centuries.

Then, next morning, I was off, loping into the limestone hills of the garrigue scrubland — “The last sigh of the Cévennes,” as some poet said. Thyme, rosemary and lavender scented the air, the sky was huge and the light clear, as if it had just come through a carwash. The dryness was palpable — bad news for drought-stricken growers, but heady for the rest of us.

Interspersed with the rocky scrub and holm oaks were olive groves and water-starved vines, their leaves limp, their fruit plump. Behind, villages rambled among the trees. Ahead were the gorges. Over the coming days, I would raise many, many toasts to thank the autumn gods that I was here.

Winding down to walking pace takes time. My six-day tour ran from Uzès to Castillon-du-Gard, roughly eight or nine foot miles per day, and came with excellent route notes that gave estimated times for getting to key points along the way. I’m a man, so naturally I spent the first part of the first morning trying to beat them. Which I did, easily.

Now, women don’t do this kind of thing. They don’t care, even if they’re behind schedule. Sometimes they dawdle. Gradually, it dawned on me that they are right. I was on my own, so impressing nobody. And I was moving at such a lick that, though I was looking at things, I was tuned to the wrong wavelength to see them. So I ditched the timetable, slowed down, sniffed the thyme and ran lavender through my hands. When I got to the gorges, I sat on the edge and let them batter my senses.

These may not be as terrifyingly dramatic as the Verdon gorges, in Provence, but the drop of the cliffs is void enough for most people’s vertigo — and there’s nobody else around. You can’t get anywhere near by car, so I had the dizzying gash and thread of water at the bottom to myself.

It was pretty wild. Too wild. After sitting there for a bit, I had an urge to hurl myself hundreds of feet to certain death — with, I noted later, my picnic uneaten. A potential double tragedy. I scrambled back, took a couple of deep breaths and ambled on.

I met nobody for hours. All was peace, light and solitude — which can do strange things to a person. I talked with goats in distant stretches of scrub (“Hello there, I am a friend to all goats” . . . you know the sort of thing), sang out loud and claimed a particularly lovely length of the river in the name of the Queen.

Big birds circled overhead (Bonelli’s eagles? Egyptian vultures? Turkeys? Ornithology isn’t my strong point). Normal subject matter emptied from my mind, which rambled all over the place. This hadn’t happened for ages — and can, of course, be overdone. So I wasn’t displeased, at the end of the day, to bump back into humanity, especially on thelimited scale available in the village of Collias.

There was, in fact, nobody on the steep, sinuous streets. They were all at the river beach, swimming, jumping off rocks or steering canoes into the bank. I had a beer and noted that, despite everything, I’d still arrived pretty much on schedule. Strange, that.

Notwithstanding my new-found determination to dawdle, however, I believe it’s a good idea to have a goal. Something that keeps you going and gets you excited as you approach.

Mine was the Pont du Gard, the stupendous Roman aqueduct — 902ft long, 157ft high, all golden stone and arches — that straddles the lower Gardon gorges. It was part of a 30-mile system delivering water to Nîmes, in the days when waterworks were a little more grandiose than they’ve ever been since. I’d visited a few times, but never approached entirely on foot. Yes, I was excited. You stroll up through scrub, burst out onto a clifftop and there it is, just below you — one of the most epic sights in France.

Running from hill to opposite hill, and down to blue river and white rocks, its scale and isolation are awesome — yet absolutely fitting. “It seems,” wrote Evelyn Underhill in 1949, “to be the completion of a landscape — left unfinished by mistake.” Quite.

It’s mesmerisingly perfect in every light and from every angle. I spent hours roaming around. I visited the museum, went for a swim in the river and still didn’t want to leave. Here was the pure power of Rome — at once technical and political — expressed with simple majesty. That’s what I call a goal.

Holiday evenings exist, as we’ve mentioned, to undo any good you’ve done earlier. The Gardon gorges walk succeeded brilliantly. The hotels along the route went from pleasing in Uzès to excellent in Collias and stayed that way in Castillon-du-Gard. All were venerable old buildings — labyrinthine stone corridors, surprising staircases, long memories — transformed for the comfort-seeking classes, with terraces, pools and splendid bathrooms.

The food followed the same progression. Though pretty deep in the country, this was gourmet stuff: the best lamb I’ve tasted this year, with baby vegetables, at the Castellas, in Collias; monkfish with truffles and a watermelon pud crafted like fragile modern sculpture at the Vieux Castillon. All this was included in the holiday price, so that was great.

But such food in such surroundings — absurdly picturesque terraces in Uzès and Castillon; overlooking the little garden in Collias — requires at least one apéritif, wine, then coffee and possibly something a little stronger afterwards. Other- wise, you’re not really working at the life-balance thing.

Drinks were not included, of course, and the following morning at the Vieux Castillon I got a bill I deserved, but hadn’t quite expected. No regrets, though — especially not when, shortly afterwards, I took a call from a friend in Britain. “Sheeting it down here, mate,” he said. Smug? You bet.

Details: with Inntravel (01653 617906), a six-night independent walk along the Gardon gorges to the Pont du Gard starts at £1,068pp, including British Airways flights from Gatwick to Montpellier, rail and taxi transfers, half-board accommodation with gastronomic dinners, two picnics, luggage transfers, maps and notes. It is available until November 16.

Katrina - The Impact On Tourism

2005-09-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf coast states of the USA on Monday, has left the infrastructure of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in tatters.

It also hit northern Florida and the Pensacola region, but resorts on the Gulf coast such as Clearwater and St Petersburg, although lashed by heavy rain, were relatively unscathed and are functioning normally.

Virgin Holidays reports no impact on its Miami and Orlando programmes.

For those who were due to visit the affected areas, though, what are the options? If you were travelling with a tour operator, contact the Association of British Travel Agents (020 7637 2444, www.abta.com).

Abta said last week that travellers booked with a tour operator will be offered a new itinerary, but if this represents a “significant alteration” to the holiday, travellers have the right to a full refund.

Tour operators are asking those booked for a date some months away to “sit tight” and see how the situation develops. Visit the Abta website for updates.

Both United Airlines and American Airlines describe the situation as “fluid”, with continuing disruptions to domestic services. American is offering cash refunds to customers booked to New Orleans — even on nonrefundable tickets.

American is allowing change of destination and dates or refunds (vouchers only on nonrefundable tickets), with all rebooking fees and most restrictions (Saturday-night stays, for example) waived, for flights to Baton Rouge in Louisiana, to Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola and Fort Walton, both in Florida. All its other airports and hubs are functioning normally.

Most US and international airlines (including BA) are operating a similar policy — some until September 30, others up to October 31— but this may change. Check airline websites for daily updates.

Although a hurricane is an “act of God”, you should still be covered by your insurance company: they baulk at acts of terror or war, not natural disasters. The travel insurer Journeywise says that normal insurance applies, except for anyone unfortunate enough to be in an area under martial law (and thus in a “war zone” — at the time of going to press, only New Orleans). Otherwise, accommodation and repatriation should be covered as usual.

Because Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have been declared disaster areas, forthcoming trips there will also be covered. Contact your insurer to see what is and isn’t covered. For future reference, your policy will be void if you book after a hurricane has been forecast and named.
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From Times Online.

A Final Shot Of Sunshine

2005-09-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Summer isn’t over yet — Cyprus is just reaching its warm and wonderful best. David Wickers explains

Cyprus

Why here? Just take a look at the map. Cyprus is more southerly than Tunis and 10 times nearer to Syria than Athens. You can’t rely on winter sunshine, but you can safely bet on a wonderful autumn. During October half-term last year, the Cypriot thermometer nudged 23C and the sea, at 20C, was still warm enough to bathe a baby in.

Where we stayed: Le Meridien (00 357 25 862000) is a great big dollop of concrete, part of a row of whoppers stretching east from Limassol. But while it may be no looker from the outside, the hotel’s innards are very impressive indeed. For active families, it is known as Limassol’s playground central.

Le Meridien feels more like a five-star cruise ship tied to a permanent mooring than a hotel: so big and so busy that tours are organised for new arrivals. It has 329 rooms, eight restaurants — ranging in style from the Japanese Kojima to the kids-only Mickey’s — and an Olympian quota of sporting facilities, including tennis, football, bowling, volleyball and a mosaic of 16 — repeat, 16 — pools. The hotel also has its own nightlife microclimate, including a disco, a theatre, a cinema and several bars.

The resort manages to marry two unlikely bedfellows: a superb spa and one of the best children’s clubs in the Med. The huge, and free, Penguin Village welcomes tinies aged 3-12 into a world of bouncy castles, football, climbing frames, basketball and theatre. Older ones graduate to the less structured Leisureland — all the sporty stuff resides here, as well as an internet cafe and a games room. There is also a crèche for tots aged 6 months to 3 years, paid for on site at about £5 per hour.

Happy in the knowledge that their bairns are having fun, parents can check into the super-serious thalassotherapy spa, which offers a menu of more than 100 treatments, from underwater massage to hot stones and seaweed wraps to micronised marine algae facials. The spa is open only to residents, so there’s no sharing your thermal dunks with pay-and-play punters or “club members”.

What we did: much of the coast has been scarred by crass development, but we found that there is plenty worth seeing out the back door. After mornings spent kicking and screaming in “the club”, we spent our afternoons on outings com- bining lots of fresh air and a soupçon of educational merit.

We found various Unesco-protected Byzantine churches and frescoed monasteries, and checked out the crusader castle of Kolossi, the Roman theatre at Kourion and the mosaics in the archeological park in Paphos. We went for a jaunt into the Troodos mountains and explored the Akamas limestone peninsula, one of the last great expanses of wild countryside in the Med.

There’s a fair bit of Cyprus that’s not to like (most of it man-made), but a little that we liked a lot, including the mountains — fabulously cloaked in cedar, oak and pine.

Would we go back? On balance, yes: maybe on a three- or four-year rota, and probably in the same October half-term week, when other parts of the Med have less reliable sun.

The package: a week’s B&B starts at £885pp, and £289 for each child under 12 sharing, with Planet Holidays (0870 066 0909) including Excel charter flights from Gatwick; departures from UK regional airports or Ireland from an extra £9.

Other options: the new Columbia Beach Resort (00 357 25 833000) is an architectural triumph, with 94 individual suites built out of pale stone, wood and reclaimed terracotta tiles. In the middle, shaded by palms, is a lagoon-like pool, fully 260ft long. It has a spa with a heated indoor pool (which swims into the outdoor one), a gym, squash and tennis courts, two restaurants and a children’s club during October half-term.

Halfway between Paphos and Limassol, the German-run hotel faces Pissouri Bay and a mile-long spread of Blue Flag beach, one of the best in Cyprus. Above the hotel perches a whitewashed hilltop village with a couple of tavernas. A week’s B&B costs £1,323pp, and £1,190 for under-12s, with Sunvil (020 8568 4499), including car hire and scheduled flights from Heathrow; regional departures available on request.

Alternatively, consider staying in one of the 50 or so traditional houses in a hugely successful agritourism project that is breathing life back into the Cypriot hills. You’ll plug into the slow pace of rural life, eat at local tavernas and get to meet the welcoming, English-speaking locals.

The Linos Inn, at Kakopetria in the Troodos mountains, comprises several restored houses, with a week’s B&B starting at £547pp (same for children) with Sunvil (020 8568 4499), including car hire and Excel flights from Gatwick; regional departures available on request.

The kids' verdict

“This was like two holidays — one in and around the pool, the other having quite a good day out.” Francesca, 15

“I loved the trout and chips at Kakopetria — but the sea was too cold.” Madeleine, 12

David Wickers travelled as a guest of Planet Holidays

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The last three posts have been edited from an article in The Sunday Times, Travel (Times Online)

Algarve All-Stars

2005-09-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

Mark Hodson takes to life in the slow lane

Algarve

Why here? The Algarve is a perennial favourite with Brits: it is safe and friendly, English is widely spoken and children are not tolerated, but treasured.

Eating out is excellent value, and if your offspring don’t fancy fresh Atlantic clams or stone bass, most kitchens will happily knock up some spag bol. Flying time is less than three hours, and the sun can usually be relied on to shine. October tends to be T-shirt weather (18C-22C), with a chance of cloud.

Where we stayed: Pine Cliffs (00 351 289 500377) is a Sheraton-run five-star with a loyal following among British families — many return several times a year. It’s a huge place with an embarrassment of facilities: six restaurants, four swimming pools, all-weather tennis courts, a golf academy (and a nine-hole course), a health club and one of the best-equipped children’s clubs in Europe.

Unusually, the hotel manages to be both big and beautiful. The look is classical Portuguese, with tiled courtyards and manicured gardens, fountains and lemon trees. And the location is superb — perched above dramatic brick-red cliffs, with a lift to whisk guests down to one of the best sandy beaches in Portugal.

The kids’ club, Porto Pirata, is like a hotel within a hotel, with its own pool, mini-golf course, volleyball court, sandpit, climbing frames and cycle track. The main attraction is a pair of pirate ships that house the dining area, the games room and a nursery. The enthusiastic staff organise activities, including treasure hunts, mini-Olympics, football and tennis tournaments.

Once a week, the children are taken to the hotel’s golf academy for a lesson with the resident pro. There’s one additional ingredient that makes Pine Cliffs a recipe for happy family holiday — the rooms. As well as standard doubles, the hotel has well-equipped suites overlooking the golf course, each with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. Spot-on for a family of four.

What we did: with cloud and light rain forecast, we took precautions, packing Travel Scrabble. In the end, we didn’t need it, mostly because there was so much to do at the hotel. After his first golf lesson, eight-year-old Callum was hooked, and we divided much of our time between the driving range and the mini-golf. When the sun shone, we hit the beach; when it didn’t, we swam in the heated indoor pool or played table tennis.

Away from the hotel, the options are limited. By late October, most of the Algarve’s theme parks, water parks and zoos have closed for winter — so, if the weather is patchy, you are better off in a hotel with facilities than stuck in a villa, gazing out at your (unheated) pool.

Some of the hotel food was excellent — especially the breakfast buffet and the Moroccan restaurant — but some was uninspiring and overpriced.

Fortunately, there was a good supermarket across the street, as well as a strip of three restaurants, all of them popular with both hotel guests and locals. The best is Adega Ti Costa (00 351 289 502781).

Would we go back? Yes, but we might need to confer with the bank manager first.

The package: Scott Dunn (020 8682 5040) has a week, room-only, for £3,725 during October half-term, for two adults and two children under 11, including British Airways flights from Gatwick; regional connections on request. Porto Pirata caters for children aged 6 months and up; a full day costs £26, including lunch. It is open from April to October and over Christmas.

Another option: Vila Vita Parc (00 800 2888 8882), near Porches, is in the same league as Pine Cliffs, with beautiful grounds, a gorgeous beach and 182 rooms, including 30 family suites (though the standard doubles are large enough for two adults, a child and a baby). It has half a dozen restaurants, several pools, tennis, an impressive spa and diagnostic medical centre, 18 holes of mini-golf and a nine-hole pitch-and-putt.

The kids’ club has a playground, football, volleyball and a trampoline, and is free for guests aged 4-12. The resort also has a teen club for children aged 13-19 and a particularly spacious crèche for tots aged 6 months to 3 years (£34 per day). A week in a standard room costs £2,864, B&B, for a family of four, including British Airways flights and transfers, with ITC Classics (01244 355527). A family suite costs £ 4,208.

The kid's verdict

“I thought I might be too old for the kids’ club, but once I got there, I didn’t want to leave. The only downer was that some of the activities got cancelled. And some of the girls got on my nerves.” Callum, 8

Mark Hodson travelled as a guest of Scott Dunn

Part III: Cyprus

No Half-Measures This October

2005-09-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Summer’s over — but you can get one last burst of Mediterranean sun and family fun next half-term. Three writers, and their kids, report

Summer is over, the new school year is beginning, the photos are back from Snappy Snaps and the tan has long since drained away with the bathwater. But families can still enjoy a second helping of summer during the October half-term, and often at prices well below their August peak.

Our experts have selected three favourite family desti- nations for the autumn break, all odds-on for good weather and within a few hours’ flight. They’ve picked the best all- action resort hotel (and suggested a few alternatives for good measure), checked out the nearby attractions and asked the kids for their verdicts, too. So, here’s to October — and your longest summer yet.

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Unless stated, all package prices are for October half-term week and include flights and transfers. Most half-term holidays begin on Saturday, October 22, but some schools are off the week before, hence the inclusion of departures that cover this period too
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Tunisia

Why here? Because it’s an easy dose of exotica on our doorstep — just three hours away — and scheduled flights mean you aren’t hamstrung by weekly charters. You can take four-, five- or six-day breaks and skip the worst of the half-term airport bottlenecks.

Tunisia is also safe — a highly secular country where women got the vote before they did in Switzerland. Don’t expect blistering sun in October, though, at least not in the north. Temperatures range from 15C to 25C, with an average of seven hours of sunshine a day.

Where we stayed: compared with many of the modern monoliths that dot the Tunisian coast, The Residence is cool and understated, with extensive grounds and a vast swimming pool (only heated, alas, until October 15). The hotel is on the Côte de Carthage, an easy 30-minute cab ride from Tunis, so a real working city is on the doorstep, with one of the most manageable — and most friendly — medinas in North Africa, not to mention Roman and Phoenician ruins, excellent museums and lots of beach.

The hotel has plenty of dining options, all with children’s menus — including a swanky Chinese restaurant (the owner is from Singapore). Rooms are large, comfy and well equipped, with de rigueur marble bathrooms.

Our children’s eyes lit up when they saw the public areas — planted on the lawn near the paddling pool was a large climbing frame, complete with enthusiastically climbing kids. There’s also the Dolphin children’s club — basically a supervised playroom — and the beach, with camels for hire.

The Residence has a good spa, where treatments are not only exceptional, but exceptionally cheap. At a time when massage inflation is rampant, you can get a thorough 45- minute going-over for £22.

It is also restricted to over-16s.

But if you are thinking of barricading yourself in the spa (as many guests do), note that the children’s club does not run all year: make sure you check when booking. However, the hotel says that it will run a club this half-term, from October 16 to 30.

In addition, the tour operator Powder Byrne plans to feature The Residence for the second time this half-term, and will be installing its own kids’ clubs — but these will be available only to its customers.

What we did: each morning seemed to begin with some friendly bartering with the camel owners down on the beach. The Camel Ride Price Index jumped around like the Hang Seng, veering from 20 dinars (£8.50) to 5. We got it at 7 per child and 10 per adult.

We tore ourselves away from the pool for trips to Tunis’s medina, to the charming blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Saïd and to see the stunning mosaics at the Bardo Museum. We also did a quick tour of Carthage, which is a tad dis- appointing for children — you need a vivid imagination to re-create the glorious past from the rubble that remains (although the museum, closed on Mondays, is worthwhile).

If you want something more extant, the best Roman site in the country is at Dougga, a two-hour car ride away. We also had a wonderful dinner in the medina, at Dar Hamouda Pacha (56 Rue Sidi Ben Arous; 00 216 71 566584), a new restaurant around the corner from the better-known Dar El Jeld. No kids’ menus, but plenty of grilled chicken and lamb chops, which suited them just fine.

A shuttle bus into town, even once a day, would be a good addition to the hotel setup.

Otherwise, you’re left to negotiate with cab drivers (as with everything in Tunisia, a smattering of French goes a long way), who have a tendency to throw in guided tours and the odd carpet-shop visit.

There are a few signs of life near the hotel — a bowling alley/bar across the road, a couple of other hotels along the strip — but your holiday will revolve around The Residence.

Would we go back? For sure — but preferably during the period when the pool is heated.

The package: ITC Classics (01244 355527) has seven nights, room-only, in a pool-view suite from £1,580pp and £215 per child, based on four sharing, including BA flights from Gatwick and transfers; Irish and regional departures from £60pp.

Powder Byrne (020 8246 5300) has seven nights, half-board, in a double room from £2,212pp and £1,166 per child, including BA flights from Gatwick and transfers. The Powder Byrne crèche (6 months to 3 years) costs £250 per week; Scallywags (4-9 years) is complimentary; the Zone (9-14 years) costs £185 per week.

Other options: the Mövenpick Ulysse Palace Hotel, on Djerba, an island off southern Tunisia, has outdoor and indoor pools, a fitness room, volleyball, table tennis, riding and a thalassotherapy centre. It offers a kids’ club called Picky for children aged 3-12, a mini- cinema and a large play area.

A week at half-term costs £785pp, and £549 per child sharing a room, with Wigmore Holidays (020 7836 4999), including flights from Heathrow or Gatwick; regional departures available on request.

The Hotel Melia El Mouradi Hammamet, in the newish resort of Hammamet Yasmine, has a mini-club for children aged 5-12, with organised activities. The family entertainment programme includes live music and occasional shows, and baby-sitting is available.

The resort also has a marina, a casino, a “traditional” (but newly constructed) medina and an amusement park. A week’s half-board at half-term starts at £459pp, and £349 per child under 12 sharing, with Tunisia First (01276 600100), including flights from Heathrow with Tunisair (regional connections on request) and transfers.

*
The kids' verdict

“I liked the grounds, the beach, the camels, the pool and the staff. The pool was a little chilly, though.” Gina, 9

“I was fascinated by the medina — it was the first time I’d been to a bazaar.” Bella, 12

Rob Ryan travelled as a guest of ITC Classics
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Part II: Algarve

Bring On The White Stuff

2005-09-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Mark Frary, ski correspondent of The Times, writes about the outlook for the ski season

You can bet that whenever I start thinking about the next winter season, the weather conspires to distract me.

Sure enough, as I write this on the last day of August, the mercury has shot up to 33 degrees. If only that were Fahrenheit rather than Celsius and it might be a bit easier.

Although the sun is very welcome, I can't wait for the chillier days that will herald the first flakes of snow. It just seems so long since I had powder beneath my skis (or under my armpits thinking of one particulalry snowy day in Tignes last winter).

Although I'm looking forward to it, some ski companies probably are less keen to look to the future. The 2005/06 season may well be remembered as the one which sounded the death knell for the mid-sized ski holiday company. The signs have been there for some time but now companies like First Choice, Airtours and Skiworld are really feeling the squeeze.

The three biggest ski tour operators - Crystal, Inghams and Thomson - are getting bigger and offering ever wider ranges of resorts. Their sheer size means they can add new destinations to their brochures easily because of economies of scale. The big boys can also spend far more on marketing. For medium-sized companies, things are not so easy.

Meanwhile at the other end of the market, small ski firms are differentiating themselves by offering specialist holidays - focusing on single resorts such as Stanford Skiing in Megève, a portfolio of lesser-known resorts in the case of Peak Retreats or family holidays in the case of Ski Famille and the Family Ski Company.

Mid-sized firms are also losing out to the independent sector. Despite many in the business thinking that the no-frills airline boom was over, carriers have thumbed their noses at the thought and have launched more than 20 brand new routes to ski gateway airports.

Many of the new flights are from regional airports such as Bournemouth and Nottingham Robin Hood Airport, which opened earlier this year and now has winter flights to Geneva and Lyons, courtesy of easyJet and Ryanair respectively.

Although it has been tough in the past to find accommodation and transfers to go with an independently booked flight, even this is getting easier, making it possible for winter sports enthusiasts to put together their own packages.

Some mid-sized firms have responded to the challenge by transforming themselves. Both Esprit and Total, now run by the same management team that made Crystal into such a big player, have expanded rapidly as they aim to get into the big league. If the size of this year's brochures are anything to go by, they are certainly getting there.

Erna Low, named after one of the pioneers of ski holidays, last season branched out to North America and is expanding again this season with short breaks. It is also putting a huge effort into its ski property business with partner Savills. The boost that the ski property market is likely to get next April when people will be able to buy residential property with their pensions may make this sideline even more important.

This squeeze on the middle-sized firms is a shame. A lot of ski holiday firms are set up by enthusiasts and making profit is often considered less important than introducing people to the joys of the mountains. So take my advice and book a holiday with a mid-sized firm today as they may not be around tomorrow.

This winter also sees Turin hosting the 20th Winter Olympics.

The jury is out on whether the British are really interested in the Winter Olympics. Chemmy Alcott, British skiing's answer to tennis's Anna Kournikova in both looks and talent, might raise the pulse of a few middle-aged gentlemen but Britain has no winter equivalents of Paula Radcliffe, Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent or Dame Kelly Holmes who can really get the nation behind them.

The only skiing medal that Britain has ever won, a bronze at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City by the Scot Alain Baxter, was taken away from him when he failed a drugs test. Baxter claims he fell foul of the test by unwittingly using a nasal inhaler that contained a banned substance.

The days when the whole of Britain was glued to the television to watch Torvill and Dean at the Sarajevo Games seems a distant and fading memory. And no, Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards never did win a medal.

Worse news for the sorry few who really are interested in the Winter Games (February 10-26) is that accommodation during the Games will be virtually impossible to find. While Brits may find the Games about as interesting as synchronised swimming, our European neighbours with their pin-up Olympians who are actually in with a chance of coming somewhere above 15th have already laid their towels - warm and fluffy ones - across the Italian Alps.

So if Italy's Olympic resorts are out, where are people going? Bulgaria is coming back into fashion again and last season a third more people than the previous year decided to visit, drawn by good value entry-level skiing. But the country has taken a leaf out of Andorra's book, which has reinvented itself in recent years.

Spearheading the thrust is the resort of Bansko, where huge investments have been made. As a sign of the quality, upmarket hotel group Kempinski has opened a property there. More people will fly this year on the back of appearing as a new resort in the Thomson brochure and a new charter flight for both Crystal and Thomson from Glasgow to Sofia.

After a good start last winter, Serbia is likely to be another destination that grows in popularity. The long transfers which put many people off from visiting this otherwise family-friendly destination last year have gone, replaced by short transfers from Serbia's Nis airport.

Ski holidays to America and Canada are likely to be hit by high fuel surcharges. Most use scheduled carriers and long-haul flights have had surcharges of £24 for each leg of the journey imposed. Surcharges on charter flights have been absorbed in the cost of the package and many tour operators have hedged against the rising fuel price.

As far what the snow will be like this year, who knows? Last winter started off terribly for much of Europe but by late Januay, things had improved so much that it turned into a real classic. Parts of Canada - Whistler in particular - were more slushy brown than sparkling white for much of the winter too. In America, Utah and Colorado fared much better and had heaps of the white stuff.

Snowfall is hard to predict, particularly in these days of global warming so I won't stick my neck out on how much snow we're likely to see this year. But wait a minute, what's this? The Canadian Tourism Commission must have been reading my mind. A letter has arrived from them and the envelope is filled with snowflakes. They may be fake but I'm counting them as the first flakes of winter. Let's hope many more follow.
--
Edited from Times Online.

Short Haul Bargain Breaks

2005-09-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thinking of jetting away for some late summer sunshine. Here's the best of whats on over.

The Elysium Spa, boat trips to Comino with its blue lagoon and nature reserve, and diving are among activities to enjoy at the Barcelo Riviera Resort and Spa at Marfa Bay, Malta. A week’s B&B, including midweek flights from London this month, costs £417 with Aquatours.

The Iliana Villas comprise flats built around a pool in a rural corner of the Greek Island of Lefkas, where Sunvil offers holidays this month. Fly from Gatwick or Manchester on September 18 and a fortnight costs from £449; a week from September 23 is £309.

A five-star break for a week on Madeira from £459 is good value and on offer this month with Atlantic Holidays. Fly from Gatwick on Mondays for B&B at the Pestana Grand Hotel.

A visit to Dracula’s Castle, a trek in search of brown bears and a tour of Bucharest are included in a five-day guided trip to Transylvania, starting on September 15 and October 13 with Explore. It costs £524, with flights from Heathrow and B&B.

Long-Haul Short Breaks: Cape Town

2005-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Beautiful scenery, great beaches and good nightlife. What more could you want from a weekend away, asks Andrew Tuck

Passport, wallet, sunglasses, significant other. All present and correct. OK, let's go. You need to get yourself to the British Airways check-in at Heathrow for your Thursday evening flight. Now, while we love Virgin, only BA has direct flights to Cape Town on Thursdays and you don't want to lose time switching planes in Johannesburg. Return fares start at around £690 economy, £2,525 club. The flight leaves London at 7.35pm and takes 11 hours and 30 minutes to reach Cape Town, so you arrive (almost fresh) at 8.50am local time - they are two hours ahead of the UK, so there is no jet lag to get over.

And, if you visit during our winter, there is something instantly reviving about suddenly being confronted by the cloudless blue skies and flip-flopped locals looking relaxed and summery. The easiest way to get around Cape Town and the surrounding countryside is by car. Book in advance from a company such as www.carrentals.co.uk. They will give you an easy-to-follow map and then it is about a 30- to 40-minute drive to your hotel, The Twelve Apostles in Camps Bay.

Day 1, Friday

Camps Bay is spectacular. Only a 15-minute drive from the city centre, it functions as its own small town. And a chic and funky one at that. There is a broad sandy beach where impossibly fit people play ball, and beyond that, a strip of busy beachside restaurants and jumping bars. Then behind them are the smart houses of some of Cape Town's wealthiest residents and then the mountains known as the Twelve Apostles, which lend their name to your chic boutique hotel in Victoria Road (00 27 21 437 9000).

The hotel is at the far end of this hamlet and has been designed to make the most of the dramatic setting where apparently "earth, sea and sky meet". Room rates start at R2,335 (£190) for a mountain-facing room on a b&b basis.

After check-in, you can have a refreshing swim in the hotel's pool. But don't get too relaxed. You have got three days to get this town licked. So head into the centre of Camps Bay and have brunch at Blues, The Promenade, Victoria Road (00 27 21 438 2040). Expect to pay around R150 (£13). Get a table on the first-floor terrace from where you can people-watch.

Then take the 10-minute drive to the cable car station at Tafelberg Road (00 27 20 424 8181) for Table Mountain. A return ticket costs R110 (£9). From this famed flat-topped mountain you can see how the city is laid out - how the heart of Cape Town, the City Bowl, is divided from the nearby beaches - but there is also something almost spiritual about being up here as wisps of cloud form and vanish in front of you.

Afterwards drive to Kloof Street 10 minutes' away where you can spend a couple of hours checking out the chic homes and interiors shops. For a light late lunch you could try Café Gainsbourg, 64 Kloof Street (00 27 21 422 1780). Expect to pay around R150 (£13). By now you will be feeling a little tired, so drive down to the beaches at Clifton, rent a sunlounger and have a nap. Clifton's beaches are numbered, named First to Fourth, and each has a different atmosphere.

Take it easy on your first night and have sundowners at one of the clubby bars in Camps Bay or back at the hotel. For dinner try the Codfather, 41 The Drive, Camps Bay (00 27 21 438 0782), where you pick what you want from the display of freshly caught fish. Expect to pay around R150 (£13).

Day 2, Saturday

Breakfast at the hotel and then drive to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront shopping centre. This is where you catch the ferry to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many other members of the ANC were imprisoned during the apartheid years.

The first boat goes at 9am and the trip takes half a day - ask your hotel to book this in advance for you (00 27 21 409 5100). The trip costs R150 (£12). Three tips: get there half an hour before the boat leaves if you want to secure a good seat, pack a baseball cap to keep the sun off and bring big bottles of water.

Back at the V&A Waterfront you might want to do some shopping - although it is a little like going to Bluewater - and there are some OK restaurants for a quick lunch.

You will want some time on your own in the afternoon. So drive back along the Atlantic coast, through Camps Bay, and visit the lovely beachside towns of Llandudno, Hout Bay and Noordhoek. The beach at Noordhoek is vast - you will see people riding their horses along it - and empty. Great place to chill out.

You can stop for an end-of-day drink as you return to your hotel. For dinner try the trendy Tank, Cape Quarter, De Waterkant Street, De Waterkant (00 27 21 419 0007) in the area known as De Waterkant. Expect to pay around R150 (£13). If you want to make a night of it, this is also where many of the best bars and clubs are found.

Day 3, Sunday

Come on, get out of bed. Yesterday you drove down the Atlantic coast. This morning you are driving along the coastline of False Bay. You can stop for brunch in Kalk Bay where there is the popular Olympia Café and deli, 134 Main Road, Kalk Bay (00 27 21 788 6396). Expect to pay around R100 (£8).

Then head for Simonstown where, in the area called Boulders, there is a cute treat in store. In 1982, two pairs of African penguins pitched up on the beach. Now there are thousands and Boulders has been turned into a nature reserve. You have to pay a few rand to get to the best viewing areas but it's really worth it as the penguins are not timid and potter around feet away from you.

Still hungry? Well don't pick up a penguin because there are several good cheap cafés by the beach. Then continue the drive along False Bay - keeping a look-out for migrating whales - until you reach Cape Point, the most southerly point in Africa. You have to walk the last bit, along a rocky narrow path - and keep your fingers crossed that, in your absence, the baboons do not have a go at your car.

For dinner, go into the city centre where you can eat at the smart Five Flies, 14-16 Keerom Street, City Centre (00 27 21 424 4442), in the old Dutch Club next to the High Court. Expect to pay around R150 (£13). It is slightly classier than many places in Cape Town; ditch your sandals in favour of shoes for one night.

Day 4, Monday

If you still haven't done enough shopping, check out Green Market Square in the city centre where there are stalls selling crafts from across Africa. Or visit the botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch Kirstenbosch, Rhodes Drive, Newlands (00 27 21 799 8899).

From here it is a short drive to wine estates, many of which have excellent restaurants. A favourite is Constantia Uitsig, Uitsig Farm, Spaanschemat River Road, Constantia (00 27 21 794 4480). Expect to pay around R260 (£22). And as you take coffee on the terrace, overlooking the gardens with their tall agapanthus trembling in the breeze and the immaculate vineyards, you understand why it was worth coming all this way for a long weekend.

For now, however, it's back to the hotel for a final dip in the pool and to reluctantly pack. As the plane takes off at 8pm the pilot will tilt the wing as he heads out over the Atlantic, and you will see Cape Town in front of you for one last time. The sea shimmers. The office awaits you.

Further information: South Africa Tourism (0870-155 0044).
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Edited from an article in The Independent on Sunday, Travel, Andrew Tuck (Independent Online)

The Magic Of Greece

2005-08-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

THE WISH list is simple: you want a small, unpretentious place to stay, not too far from a decent beach, in a quiet, auth-entic village where the locals outnumber the tourists. Sadly, thousands of other travellers want exactly the same thing. So, play it smart: find a destination that’s at least one hydrofoil ride, or lengthy road journey, from the nearest airport, so you avoid the fly-and-flop brigade.

A September charter to Kos — flights from Gatwick with Thomson start at £154 return — and an hour on a hydrofoil will deposit you on Nisyros, a puny but stalwartly Greek island skirting a volcano, the latter dormant, but still toasty enough to give frissons when you’re walking on the crater.

Nisyros has lovely walks, sandy beaches and four traditional villages (one, Emborio, has a natural sauna). There’s a bus, so you don’t need a car, and you can try a new taverna every night of the week.

In Mandraki, Nisyros’s colourful cobbled port, the delightful Haritos Hotel (00 30-22420 31322) has a pool and doubles with sea views for £24, B&B, in September. Or stay right on the sand in vintage 1980s style at the White Beach hotel (22420 31497); doubles £26, B&B.

Islands such as Nisyros may be charming and intimate, but Crete offers more wiggle room. Take a charter to Heraklion with Charter Flights (0845 045 0153; from £119). Once there, hire a car with a local firm, City Car (00 30-2810 221801) — prices are as low as £82 per week. Then head south for some late sunshine: nowhere in Europe does summer linger longer than on Crete’s Libyan coast, only 90 miles from Egypt.

It may be a longish 75-mile drive over the mountains from Heraklion to Myrtos, but Myrtos is the real McCoy, and something of a best-kept secret among Greeks. A characterful whitewashed village of narrow lanes, Myrtos has a lovely beach and lies in easy striking distance of evocative Minoan sites, walks in the Selakano Forest and enchanting gorges, far from the elbow-crunching hordes at Knossos and Samaria.

The Esperides (28420 51207) is a smartish hotel with a pool 200 yards from Myrtos beach, with doubles from £27, B&B. Or call Kosmar Holidays (0870 700 0747) for a Myrtos package.

How low can you go? About £350 for a September week, adding £80 if you need wheels.

Bag A Bargain Break

2005-08-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

A WEEK IN THE CARIBBEAN

WHY THE Caribbean? Plenty of destinations have sunshine, sandy beaches and swaying palm trees. But there’s something special about the Windies: the friendly smiles, the languid lifestyle, the lazy fishing villages and the beach shacks where you laze in a hammock, sipping rum punches and watching kids play cricket.

Sadly, most budget Caribbean holidays are nothing like this. You might, for instance, land in a concrete apartment block in a grubby corner of Barbados, or a monstrous all-inclusive in “Dom Rep”, where your fellow guests neck lagers for breakfast.

We’re going to opt for Tobago. It offers pristine coral beaches, a forested interior squawking with bird life and pastel-painted creole restaurants where rotund ladies smile proudly as they present you with fried plantains and callaloo soup. The cost of living is cheap (about £15 for dinner at a decent restaurant), crime is low and there is a weekly jump-up with steel bands and calypso.

Another reason to be cheerful about Tobago: direct flights with BA, Virgin Atlantic, BWIA and Excel, a charter. Normally, the word “charter” would have us running for the hills, but Excel is as good as its name suggests, with a better seat pitch than its scheduled rivals (32in-33in, against 31in on BA and Virgin). And it’s cheaper: £372 in November, booked with Travel Republic (0845 612 1747), compared with £399 with BA or Virgin.

Why November? Because the hurricane season is well and truly over, but flights have yet to hit peak-season rates.

As for hotels, you can forget about the five-stars: they’re pricey and surprisingly characterless. Instead, try Seahorse Inn (00 1 868 639 0686), on lovely Stonehaven Bay, a restaurant with four rooms that cost £88 per night, B&B.

Better still, head up the coast to Castara, a delightful village with friendly bars and more fishing boats than sunbathers. Overlooking the white-sand beach, Castara Retreats (01497 831439) has four wooden apartments, built among the mango trees, that cost £65 per night. It’s self-catering: buy snapper direct from the fishermen and pick your own mangos.

How low can you go? Less than £650 buys a genuine slice of paradise.

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A WEEK IN SAFARI

A DECENT safari does not come cheap — but it needn’t be as pricey as you’d think. Don’t waste money on sherry sundowners and uniformed flunkeys — stay somewhere simple, eat under the stars and gasp at the game, not the wine list.

Kenya has the shortest flights and therefore the cheapest packages, with one week costing as little as £499. Don’t be tempted. You’ll drive in a convoy of overstuffed mini-vans, eat poor food in dreary dining halls and sleep in characterless compounds that feel more like Basildon than the bush. Pay about £1,000 and it’s a different story, with honeypots such as the Masai Mara still big enough to let you get well away from all that.

The standout for simplicity and quality is Kicheche camp, in a stunning game area — guests recently saw a cheetah kill 500 yards from camp. There are just 11 two-person tents, all ensuite, with hearty bush food — not school dinners, like the cheapies, or flageolets, for the snobs. Vehicles are open-topped, six-seater 4WD minibuses.

Unlike at cheaper camps, Masai guards escort you to your tent after dark. Why? While the cheapos are surrounded by barbed wire, Kicheche is open to the bush. Exodus has eight days in Kenya, with three nights at Kicheche, from £1,071, full-board, including flights and transfers.

With new Air Namibia flights direct into Windhoek, and government rest camps offering some of the best value for money in Africa, Namibia is another good budget option. Best of the rest-camp crop is Okaukuejo, one of only three inside Etosha National Park.

It’s state-run, so bungalows, while spacious and clean, are largely unchanged since the 1970s, but the upsides are substantial: a waterhole with the best black-rhino sightings on the continent, a large swimming pool and a five-minute drive to the park’s best waterholes. Sunvil Africa (020 8232 9777) has seven nights in Namibia, with five, room-only, at Okaukuejo, for £1,074, including flights and car hire.

For luxury on the cheap, Zambia’s foremost guide, Robin Pope, rents his former house to couples or families (sleeps five): private chef, dedicated guide, awesome veranda views of the Luangwa River. Six nights cost £1,396, full-board, with J&C Voyageurs (01373 832111), including flights and transfers.

How low can you go? For the right balance of simplicity and style, don’t go below £1,000.
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Edited from an article in The Sunday Times, Travel, Stephen Bleach (Times Online).

Instant Weekend: Seville

2005-08-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

An at-a-glance guide to the city, by Nicki Symington

WHY GO NOW?

Spring can be a mob scene in Seville so go now and relax. Summer temperatures are mild and Ryanair's new route from Stansted makes it easier to get there.

WHERE TO STAY

The charming family owned Casa de Carmona (00 34 954 191000), a 17th-century palace in Carmona to the east of Seville, is a real haven of tranquillity. Doubles start at €130 (£90). Las Casas de la Juderia (00 34 954 415150) is a set of character-filled houses grouped around a series of courtyards and patios in the barrio Santa Cruz. Doubles from €100.

WHAT TO SEE

Stroll in the gorgeous Alcazar Gardens and visit the adjoining royal palace, the cathedral and La Giralda tower. Seville is bull-fighting central, and whatever your feelings, it's worth visiting the bullring, even out of season.

WHERE TO EAT

La Alquería at the Hacienda Benazuza, 20 minutes out of town, is the Andalucian outpost of El Bulli, home of Mr Molecular Gastronomy, Ferrán Adriá. The great man may not cook here, but a disciple does. If you can't face the trip out, try any of the tapas bars around El Centro. Bodega Extremeña (Calle San Esteban) is particularly good.

THE BIG NIGHT OUT

Flamenco grew up in the old Jewish quarter, or barrio, Santa Cruz, a twist of quaint streets peppered with smoky bars. One such is Los Gallos (00 34 954 216981) in the Plaza de Santa Cruz, where many famous flamenco performers have appeared. Bars such as El Tamboril, across the square, have free flamenco every night.

GETTING THERE

From 25 February, you can fly from London Stansted with Ryanair. Return fares start from £90. Try Airport Holidays for some cheap breaks.
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Edited from The Observer, Travel, Nicki Symington (The Observer).

Long Haul Bargains

2005-08-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

The best deals for this years top destinations

Get on your marks for bargains to Australia that go on sale at 9am on Saturday. Buy a flight to Perth or Sydney in November or December for £499 and a second ticket will cost half, £249.50. With these prices, from Austravel, it’s possible to spend two weeks in a three-star hotel in Perth for £765. 0870 1662070

Ready for some excitement in August? Then join Trek America’s ten-day New England Adventure, starting from New York on August 6. Hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the sun rise, take a ride on a bobsled run and explore canoeing routes and mountain biking trails. The trip costs £399 with admissions and activities. Flights extra. 0870 4448735

End-of-the-summer holidays with Hayes & Jarvis include a fortnight’s all-inclusive at a resort on Yuraguanal Beach, Cuba, for £769 with a flight from Manchester on August 26 — and two weeks’ full-board at the Biyadhoo resort in the Maldives for £849, flying from Gatwick or Manchester on August 28. 0870 8503565

All prices are per person and based on two sharing a room unless stated otherwise.

The best holiday deals are available from Bargain Holiday Break.
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All prices per person. Details correct when published.
Cannot accept any responsibility for any flight/ holiday loss or inconvenience to any person.

Beyond The Realms Of Mickey And Minnie

2005-08-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Martin Symington samples the latest thrills that American theme parks have to offer

FLORIDA

Orlando

Walt Disney World Resort (www.disney.co.uk) comprises four monorail-linked theme parks: the original Magic Kingdom, futuristic Epcot, MGM Studios, and the Animal Kingdom.

Rather like Nasa’s ageing space shuttle, time seems to be catching up with Epcot, and its weary flagship ride Mission: SPACE. However, the park has a new attraction, Soarin’, which is a variation on the four-year-old Soarin’ Over California ride at the California Adventure park at Anaheim. Riders are suspended vertiginously in the air, sweeping over coastline, orchards, desert canyons and ski resorts while inhaling whiffs of ozone and orange blossom. It is a masterful piece of theme park artistry and worth fighting for a first-row seat. Otherwise, this Grand Tour of virtual travel is marred by the swinging legs of flyers in front.

With their youngest guests in mind, Epcot has also introduced one-to-one conversations with Crush, the 152-year-old sea turtle from Finding Nemo, in Turtle Talk with Crush — a real-time animated show.

Meanwhile, Magic Kingdom proves that there is mileage yet in the most time-honoured fairytales. Cinderellabration is the extravagant coronation ceremony of Prince Charming, staged several times daily outside the towering spires of centrepiece Cinderella’s castle. Although new to Disney World, the show

has been imported from Disneyland Tokyo, where the company claims it has been “captivating crowds” since its launch two years ago.

MGM Studios has a new high-octane Lights, Camera, Action stunt show featuring racing cars, speedboats and motorbikes, while visitors to Animal Kingdom will have to wait until 2006 to meet a Yeti on the vaunted Expedition Everest high-speed train adventure.

Anheuser-Busch’s SeaWorld Orlando (www.seaworld.org) has taken a further step away from being a glorified aquarium, towards being a multi-faceted theme park. It already boasts Kraken, one of the largest, highest and fastest rollercoasters in Florida. New this summer is Blue Horizons, a glitzy theatrical show combining dolphins and whales, daredevil performers, Andean condors and flocks of macaws. The adjoining Discovery Cove remains the place to swim with dolphins.

The Universal Orlando Resort (www.universalorlando.com) features most of the same movie-themed rides as its counterpart in Hollywood (see below), including the new Fear Factor Live. However, not being an authentic film studio, there are no behind-the- scenes tours.

Tampa Bay

The Gulf Coast’s mega theme park, Busch Gardens (www.buschgardens.co.uk), has just unveiled Florida’s tallest, fastest and probably scariest rollercoaster.

ShreiKra is a “dive coaster” (meaning that it drops vertically) — one of only three in the world to do so. The first 90-degree drop is from 200 feet, reaching 70mph before racing upside down into a loop. The second ride plummets into a pitch-black tunnel before splashing into a pool.

If those seem rather daunting, don’t worry — the park has seven other rollercoasters on a decreasing scale of terror-quotient.

CALIFORNIA

Anaheim

Disneyland Resort California (www.disney.co.uk) is a pair of theme parks and hotels at Anaheim on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The newer, smaller California Adventure opened four years ago, next to the original Disneyland, where this year’s big new attraction is the relaunch of white-knuckle Space Mountain, following the closure of the original ride two years ago. The newly “re-imagineered” Space Mountain is inspired by the modern era of space exploration such as the Mars Rover and Hubble telescope, as you blast off on a five-minute interstellar adventure.

Other new highlights to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the park’s opening include a new-look Sleeping Beauty’s Castle; a new Parade of Dreams musical spectacle featuring the full panoply of cartoon characters; and, nightly, the most extensive extravaganza of fireworks, sound and light — billed as Remember . . . Dreams Come True — ever staged here.

Hollywood

Gut-wrenching stunts such as having a bucket of squirming snakes dumped on your head, or swinging high from a harness while tossing squid to a partner, are just two of the feats on the blockbuster American reality TV show Fear Factor which have been adapted for the latest interactive ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood (www.universalstudioshollywood.com), Fear Factor Live.

Universal Hollywood doubles as a working film and TV studio, and a theme park featuring stunt shows and rides ranging from the entertaining to the terrifying, inspired by movies shot there. Visitors can take a behind-the-scenes tram ride around the real film sets on the Universal Studios Hollywood Tour. This summer the tour takes in, for the first time, the set of War of the Worlds, depicting a small town invaded by Martians.

San Diego

Unlike its sibling in Orlando, SeaWorld San Diego (www.seaworld.org), the main theme park in California’s far south, sticks close to its marine park roots with a Dolphin Interaction Programme, and the chance to be Trainer-for-a-Day with a pod of killer whales. After a run of several years, the curtain has fallen on a variety of long-running shows, to be replaced with others including the zany undersea Clyde and Seamore in Deep, Deep Trouble.

Legoland California (www.legolandca.com), north of San Diego, has lowered the drawbridge to a new Medieval World of Knights and Dragons. Young knights and damsels ride a Knights Tournament coaster, watch A Spark in the Knight firework spectacular, and enjoy medieval fare at the Knights’ Feast.
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Edited from an article in The Times, Travel, Martin Symington (Times Online).

The Toytown That Is Monaco

2005-08-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Fancy a weekend in Toytown? How else to describe Monaco, the tiny anomalous fiefdom which occupies a prime spot amid the sunpads and fleshpots of the French Riviera?

Where else would the national museum be devoted to dolls? Or other leading museums display such childish collectibles as Prince Albert I’s model boats, and the royal family’s stamps and coins? Even the royal car collection invites the thought that these folk collected De Dion Boutons, Bugattis and Ferraris like other people collected Dinkys.

Monaco is actually smaller than Hyde Park, even after the addition of 31 hectares reclaimed from the sea, yet it would be the brightest jewel in any crown. From my balcony at the Hôtel de Paris I looked down on the Lady Moura, the ocean-going yacht of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, manoeuvring in the harbour like a giant model on a boating pond. Here is the playground of the rich and famous.

Affording the pleasures of the place would be easier, no doubt, if one could emulate Joseph Jaggers in 1873 or Charles Deville Wells in 1891, two rival claimants to have been the original “man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”. But be warned: both the legendary big winners are reckoned to have lost the lot in attempts to repeat the feat.

Significantly Monegasques are not allowed in the casino. The wise prince who inaugurated it had no desire to see his own citizens stripped of their assets, a privilege he reserved for foreigners.

Still, you don’t have to play to appreciate the excitement of the gaming rooms, or to marvel at the characters they attract. There is more charm in the (free) front foyer exhibition of fascinating historic gaming machines and arcade amusements, none of which takes money any longer.

WHAT ELSE?

The shopping: it is easier to buy a diamond bangle or haute couture gladrags in Monte Carlo than a sausage or a piece of cheese. Fred, Chopard, Cartier, Chaumet, Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels and Repossi (jewellers) are all there, no problem, along with Christian Dior, Lanvin, Valentino, Ferragamo, Gucci, Hermès, Prada and Louis Vuitton. And don’t forget the Monaco Grand Prix every year around May.

WHERE TO STAY?

The best hotel is the Hôtel de Paris (00 377 92 16 3000), but its owners are also refurbishing and adding to its rambling neighbour the Hermitage. For something more contemporary the Port Palace, which opened last September, is built right on the quay. The long-neglected Hôtel Metropole (93 15 1515) reopens as a 146-roomer in May after complete renovation and refurbishment.

FOOD AND FUN

Monaco is home of the destination restaurant, which sets the three-star standards by which the whole of France is judged. The Louis XV, the grandiose Third Empire dining room at the Hôtel de Paris, served as launchpad to gastronomic stardom for Alain Ducasse, France’s present chef supreme.

I ate there the day Restaurant magazine announced that this was the third-best restaurant in the world. The meal was as memorable for the quality of ingredients (plump, fresh asparagus, prime morels, luscious lobster, tender milk-fed lamb) as the exactitude of the cookery.

Now, though, Monaco is to have a rival, and more affordable, gastronomic attraction. The Hôtel Métropole reopens in May with a restaurant headed by Joël Robuchon, Ducasse’s predecessor as head honcho of la cuisine française. Robuchon promises not a three-star gastronomic palace but “an informal restaurant where you might eat several times a week”. Yummy.

NEED TO KNOW

Robin Young travelled with British Airways and The Mediterranean Experience, staying at the Hôtel de Paris, where a two-night break costs from £326pp. Further information: Monaco Government Tourist and Convention Office (020-7352 9962).
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Edited from an article in The Times, Travel, Robin Young (Times Online).

Virtual Travel

2005-08-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

The success of the web has brought a new emphasis to marketing as strategy's have now become reliant on the Internet to bring success and a new customer base. The best way of proving this is by looking at how the travel industry has been completely overhauled through on-line bookings for everything from flights to car hire.

Only in the last couple of years have we seen how competitive it has become. Holidays, flights and accommodation prices are being driven lower and lower as travel companies try to entice you, the customer, into booking with them. Will this trend continue? Who knows.

It is difficult to predict how good this actually is. Will more people start booking on the web? How will high street agents contend with the rapidly upward surge in cheap flights and package deals? Is the web taking over as the easiest way to book a holiday?

The answers to these questions will take time as the industry moves forward and continues to develop over the next few years.

I learnt only last week that easyJet, the no-frills airline, spends on average around £18,000 a day on Google search. Whenever someone searches for a generic term such as 'low cost flights' etc..., easyJet pay to have their site at the top of the rankings. This gives them an advantage over the hundreds of companies try to manipulate the search engines to create popularity and bookings for their web sites.

The Internet is now a hugely effective marketing tool for just about every industry out there. It is allowing people to explore the world like never before. Cheap deals now mean that people holiday like never before. It is cheaper to take a weekend break in Europe than to spend a weekend at the seaside.

Low prices mean more holidays so the industry has enjoyed a massive period of growth this last year. The Internet has revolutionised booking holidays giving the chance for more people to travel abroad and see the wonders our world has to offer.

Podcasting: The Beginning Of The End For Guidebooks?

2005-08-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

Podwhat? Stephen Bleach, Travel Writer for The Sunday Times gets to grips with the downloadable audio guides we could all be using soon

Packing list for your next city break: clothes, cards, passport, camera ... guidebook? No, leave it at home. Just remember your MP3 player — and make sure you’ve loaded the latest podcasts, of course.

That last sentence might sound like a foreign language, but it’s one many of us will want to learn over the next few months. Because podcasting is shaping up to be the next big travel trend.

The principle is simple. Over the internet, you subscribe to a “feed” that enables you to download a series of sound files to your computer: these are then automatically transferred to your MP3 player (the system’s name is derived from Apple’s ubiquitous iPod) and, hey presto — you can listen on the move.

There’s no doubt podcasting is still at an embryonic stage, but in the past few months, the technology has been taken up by a range of radio stations, including the BBC: according to one chart, Radio 1’s Breakfast Show is the most popular podcast around.

So far, so intriguing, but what’s it got to do with travel? Well, the technology is also perfectly suited to supplying spoken-word travel guides to be listened to at the destination. While they could never be as comprehensive as a guidebook, they’re a lot lighter, easier to use, more personal — and they don’t cost anything.

You can wander the streets with your earphones in, and when you want some local knowledge on, say, choosing a restaurant, or interpreting the public sculptures, you scroll to the relevant podcast, just like choosing a song on your MP3, and listen in.

And it’s already happening. Virgin Atlantic has published four podcast guides to New York on its website, with six minute segments on restaurants, shopping, essentials for first-timers and off-the-beaten-track sights and activities. The company is planning to produce podcast guides to all its 26 destinations over the coming year: Havana is expected to be available within days, with Shanghai and Las Vegas following soon.

“We’ve had 3,000 downloads so far,” says the company’s Breda Bubear. “It’s a very new technology, but people are obviously catching on fast.

“One beauty of the system is that we can update the infor- mation much more frequently than a guidebook would. It’s great for cities, where things change so fast.”

But are the guides any good? After all, there’s no point having a native New Yorker talking you around their city if they’re talking garbage.

Happily, Virgin’s guides are lively and informative. The choices in the top-10 restaurant segment are bound to be contentious, but it’s a good, wide selection, from a Chinatown noodle bar to Thomas Keller’s Per Se. The offbeat New York guide is fun too, with spots on hip cocktail bars and diamond-district restaurants. The presenter is a touch arrogant, but, hey — as he constantly reminds us, this is Noo Yoik.

In addition to Virgin’s offering, there are hundreds of travel- related podcasts out there: the problem is finding the good ones. Podcasts are cheap and easy to make, and as a result, thousands of individuals and groups have done just that, with hugely varying results. Some are unwittingly comical, such as the lugubrious Finn giving his thoughts on local culture from his Helsinki bedroom.

HOW CAN I LISTEN IN?

All you need to download podcasts is a reasonably up-to-date computer and a good internet connection — broadband is recommended. If you want to take full advantage and hear them on the move, you’ll also need an MP3 player, such as an iPod.

Step 1: Get a podcatcher

First, download the software package, or “podcatcher” as it’s known, in order to receive podcast files. There are a number of free podcatchers available: try Ipodder or Dopplerradio.net; for iPod users, the latest version of iTunes, from www.itunes.com, has a podcatcher built in. Thankfully, all these podcatchers also have idiots’ guides on how to use the technology.

Step 2: Find your podcasts

Most podcatcher sites have links to a number of “feeds” from a range of podcasters, so you can sample a bit of what’s out there straightaway. To find more, though, look on www.digitalpodcast.com and www.podcast.net, both of which have a range of travel-related shows — or just type “travel podcasts” into your web search engine.

While many of the podcasts are the work of enthusiastic amateurs, others are more professional and information-packed. Try Las Vegas Insider, the Definitive London Podcast and the New York Minute Show.

Step 3: Listen in

You can now play the podcast directly through your computer’s speakers, or to listen as you travel, use your normal music software to transfer the sound file to your MP3 player.
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Edited from an article in The Sunday Times, Travel, Stephen Bleach (Times Online).

Why Down Under Is Everyone’s Dream Destination

2005-08-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

You will always be spoilt for choice on holiday in Australia and New Zealand, reckons Peter Hardy

Some years ago on a baking hot November morning I stood among a large crowd of cheering onlookers as a single-engine Cessna landed at a remote airfield on the north coast of Western Australia. The pilot, a 28-year-old Englishwoman named Judith Chisholm, had just smashed a host of world records by flying her frail aircraft solo from England to Australia in just under 83 hours.

“Judith, what was your reason for flying to Australia?” a television reporter asked the elated aviatrix. “Reason?” she said, looking around at the people who had either flown from Perth or driven hundreds of miles across the Outback to greet her. “You don’t need a reason to fly to Australia. You only need a reason to leave it.”

Today, the rest of us choose a rather more comfortable and quicker way of arriving Down Under. But each time I visit, it becomes increasingly difficult to find a reason to go home again.

Australia and New Zealand hold a fascination for me that goes far beyond the normal pull of destination tourism. Nothing you have ever read or heard about these countries prepares you for the humbling scale of Australia or the haunting beauty of New Zealand.

But my fascination with them extends far deeper — to the wealth of extraordinary, life-enhancing experiences within the grasp of anyone taking a two- or even one-week trip into the world’s greatest reality theme park.

In Australia, you can surf giant breakers on Queensland’s Gold Coast, round up feral bulls in the Kimberley, ride a camel at sunset along Cable Beach, drive the new Great Alpine Road across Victoria or taste wine in the rolling vineyards of the Barossa Valley, while in New Zealand you can gape at the 60ft geysers of Whakarewarewa or hike the Milford Track on South Island. The choice is entirely yours.

Cherished personal memories include diving at dusk on the Great Barrier Reef, canoeing with crocodiles on the Katherine River and watching the giraffes in Taronga Zoo gaze loftily at the incomparable Sydney skyline.

On New Zealand’s North Island, you should experience a Maori ceremony and meander through the beautiful Bay of Islands. On South Island, watch whales and dolphins from Kaikoura and explore Queenstown, with its dramatic glacial backdrop of The Remarkables, the mystical mountain setting for Lord of the Rings.

In both countries, along the way you will encounter two very different sets of people, who both welcome you with a warmth and frankness that we seem to have lost in Europe.

Just one word of warning: don’t try to achieve too much in a single visit. It’s a long way to New Zealand, and distances in Australia are huge. It makes sense to focus on a single or a select group of goals.

Always allow time to see at least one city and spend a few days acclimatising on arrival. Sydney hogs the limelight but Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra all have their individual charms. The same applies to Auckland, Wellington and the other principal cities of New Zealand.

When to visit needs to be planned in conjunction with where you want to go and what you want to see.

From the north of Queensland to the bottom of South Island covers a mighty 37 degrees of latitude. In the northern hemisphere, this is the same as travelling from Switzerland to Nigeria — with an equivalent variation in climate.

Spring and autumn, which are the reverse of those seasons in Europe, are a wise choice for visitors to the more temperate southern half of Australia. In the tropical far north, the best time to explore is during “the Dry” from April to November.

A standard package holiday can’t really do justice to the wealth of experiences on offer. But it’s easy to tailor-make the ideal bespoke trip, planning and booking as much or as little as you want in advance.

Austravel (0870 166 2050) has been in business for more than 20 years and can supply all you need for a trip Down Under. It has nine shops in seven UK cities where you can buy all, or just some, of the ingredients of your holiday. For example, you can buy return flights and two nights in a Sydney hotel, then leave yourself free to make your own arrangements for the rest of the trip.

Alternatively, you might want to buy a three-day 4x4 tour of the Northern Territory’s Top End, a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Red Centre or a beach break on the Gold Coast — or even all three. It is up to you, with each component tailored to suit your needs.

Similarly, in New Zealand you can book a stay in Auckland or Christchurch through Austravel and then bolt on a series of half-day or full-day excursions. On the other hand, you might opt to rent a motorhome to explore under your own steam or choose to take a guided 12- or 21-day coach or train tour around the country. Again, how much you book is up to you. You decide on your itinerary and Austravel will do the rest — importantly, your choices don’t have to be in the brochure.

One final tip: treat a stopover in the Far East, North America, Cape Town or Dubai not as a stepping stone to your destination but as an integral part of the holiday. Enjoy these places in their own right.

But, above all, once you arrive don’t try to do too much in one go. In half a lifetime of travelling to Australia and New Zealand, I have barely scratched the surface — which is why I’m going back again this year.

SPECIAL DEALS

Visas: you will need a visa or an ETA (electronic travel authority) to travel to Australia. An ETA will allow you to spend up to three months in the country and costs £17 (€18) . A tour operator, such as Austravel, will organise this when you book.

Round-the-world tickets: a choice of two round-the-world tickets is available for use on your Australia or New Zealand trip. The first is the World Discovery fare with British Airways and Qantas from £965 (€1,475). Choose up to seven stopovers, three of which can be in Australia or New Zealand. A sample return itinerary would depart London to New York, Los Angeles, Fiji, Auckland, Sydney, then to Singapore, Hong Kong and home.

The second option is the Great Escapade fare with Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand or Virgin Atlantic, from £915 (€1,429), which allows unlimited stopovers within 29,000 miles of flying. A sample return itinerary would leave London for Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Wellington, Fiji, Los Angeles and then home. Book with Austravel, which can also arrange tailored itineraries.
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Edited from an article in The Sunday Times, Travel, Peter Hardy (Times Online).

Czech Mate

2005-08-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

Eager to see the Czech Republic's first city but uncertain what to do. Walk the winding streets to see the what Prague has to offer

PRAGUE ON THE CHEAP

Sleep: For the low-budget traveller, heaven is a place called the Hotel Malekon-Garni (Na Zahonech 34, 00 420 2-4148 3450; doubles about £35, including breakfast): it may be 15 minutes by metro from Wenceslas Square (this part of the line is still open), but it offers cleanliness and comfort that would cost three times as much in the city centre.

Eat: Pick up a tray and join the queue at U Rozvarilu (Na Porici 26), an old-style workers’ cafeteria where hearty helpings of Czech standards cost less than £1 a plate. This is a place where the menu is definitely not available in English, so you’ll have to point at whatever takes your fancy.

Out: The changing of the guard at Prague Castle takes place on Hradcanske Namesti at noon daily, and is free. This “solemn” ceremony was devised — at the request of the president, by a rock musician and a theatrical-costume designer, and the end product is as camp as a row of tents.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Sleep: The Hotel Anna (Budecska; doubles from £66, including breakfast), on a leafy side street in Vinohrady, is straightforward, clean and furnished in conservative style. But its combination of price and location — five minutes’ walk from Wenceslas Square — is unbeatable.

Eat: It’s actually quite hard to spend more than £3.50 on a plate of good, traditional Czech food, provided you pick a pub rather than a tourist-trap restaurant. For the best svickova in town, head for U Suteru (Palackeho 4), a pub-cum-restaurant, a block away from Wenceslas Square, which opened last year.

Out: Get tickets for a proper classical concert at the Rudolfinum or Smetana Hall. Not one of the weary renditions of Mozart and Vivaldi that are reheated every night around the city, but the serious stuff, played with skill and passion by one of Prague’s first-rate orchestras. You can often buy tickets (about £5 a head for the stalls) at the box office on the morning.

NO EXPENSE SPARED

Sleep: The best hotel in Prague is the Josef (Rybna 20, 00 420 2-2170 0111; doubles from £115, including breakfast). Five minutes’ walk from the Old Town Square, it is sleek, beautiful and bang up to date. Go for a superior room — they have glass-walled bathrooms you’ll never want to leave.

Eat: Square, in the Malostranske Namesti (5753 2109), is a slick, serious-minded new venture serving Italian-and Spanish-inspired food (main courses from £6). The vaulted cellar is wonderfully snug on a chilly autumn evening. For upmarket Czech food, try U Modre Kachnicky (Michalska 16, 5732 0308), which specialises in game.

Out: At the Prague art market, you can pick up a really good painting for far less than you would at home. Earmark at least £500, then settle into a day of delicious decision-making in the city’s commercial galleries. Try the Zlata Debnar gallery (Liliova 4) and the Ceska Galerie (Malostranske Namesti 7).

The last two posts have been edited from an article in The Sunday Times, Travel, Sean Newsom (Times Online).

Insider Prague

2005-08-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

The crowds have discovered the city but Sean Newsom, Travel Writer, The Sunday Times is your guide to insider's Prague - with recommendations on where to eat and sleep on all types of budget

For more than a decade, Prague’s preternaturally good looks have been one of the worst-kept secrets in world tourism, and several key streets and monuments have endured an almost perpetual state of siege. But away from the busiest points, there is an almost villagey feel: now’s the time to go: here’s how to plan the perfect visit.

Get up early: The best way to see central Prague is on foot, and alone. If you’re there on a weekday morning, set your alarm for 6.30am and start your walk on Staromestske Namesti (Old Town Square). At this hour, it will be just you and the pigeons. It’s a magical time of day, and every view is uninterrupted: of Ladislav Saloun’s heroic statue of the preacher and protonationalist Jan Hus; of the medieval proportions of the streets that wind towards the Charles Bridge; of Prague Castle, looming over the mighty Vltava River.

Keep going over the bridge and into Mala Strana (the Little Quarter), on the opposite bank, packed with exquisite baroque palaces. Prague Castle should be your goal, and in particular the cathedral of St Vitus within its precincts. On weekdays, there is a Mass at 7am in one of the side chapels, but the main door into the cathedral is left open for the duration. Creep in and enjoy the soaring gothic splendour of the nave entirely on your own — a miracle if you know how busy it can get after the official opening. (At weekends, start your walk an hour later and aim to be the first visitor inside the cathedral at 9am.)

Visit unfashionable museums: Prague is full of museums, and some of the best are also the least visited. The Museum of Decorative Arts (Listopadu 17, admission £1.60), for example, is home to a small but eye-popping collection of artefacts, including diamond-encrusted crosses and exquisite Czech and Venetian glass, as well as a room full of graphic art and photography from the art deco and modernist periods. Also worth a visit is the Museum of Communism (Na Prikope 10, admission £3.70), with its chilling reconstruction of a secret-policeman’s office.

A visit to the national collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, just north of the city centre in Holesovice (Dukelsych Hrdinu 47, admission £5.50), is a must. It’s housed in the modernist Trade Fair Palace, and though dreary from the outside, it’s a delight within. There’s a dazzling array of work on show: from the vast Judgment of Paris, by Vojtech Hynais, a bewitching masterpiece of touch-it, feel-it naturalism, to the coldly eloquent canvases of Vaclav Bartovsky — brilliantly capturing the moral half-light of Czech life under the Nazis.

Drink lots of coffee: There’s no better place to warm up than in a good cafe. No Stress Cafe (Dusni 10) is one of the classiest, while Le Patio (Narodni Trida 22) is a big, buzzy, high-ceilinged space, perfect for people-watching. If you drink only one cup of coffee in Prague, however, it should be at Slavia (Narodni Trida 1), a cavernous room that was the gathering place of the city’s dissidents under communism.

Buy a copy of The Prague Post: The Night and Day section of this English-language newspaper has up-to-the-minute information on restaurants, exhibitions, clubs, theatres, cinemas and concerts. Pick it up for about £1 from one of the many press booths on Wenceslas Square, and don’t plan your path through Prague without it.

Get drunk: Try some of Prague’s world-beating beer. For a truly authentic night out, you’ll have to try the occasional shot of Fernet, Becherovka or slivovice as well. Be warned: all three will knock your evening completely off course.

Most of the best pubs are on the outskirts of the city centre, but U Vejvodu, on Jilska street, is an exception: a cavernous beer cellar, a hop, skip and a stagger south of the Old Town Square, it still manages to be a stronghold of local life after dark. Fashionistas will be happier in the streets on the opposite side of the square. Every tier of society seems to have its own watering hole round here: the Marquis de Sade (Templova 8), housed in a former brothel, is big with the goatee-beard brigade, while their better-dressed brethren congregate at M1 Secret Lounge, the brand-new home of hip at Masna 1. For the biggest buzz of all, head for Tretter’s cocktail bar (Kolkovne 3).

Eat Czech: At first sight, Czech food is scary. Thick sauces, full-fat flavours and impenetrable names — and if you make the wrong choice, there’s the danger that you could end up with a bowl of pig’s-blood soup. But once you get the hang of it, eating Czech is a delight. It’s cheap, richly nourishing and — best of all — served in places that most tourists never get to.

Here are some names to conjure with. Svickova (pronounced “sveechkovar”) is a dish of beef and dumplings, covered in a thick gravy and served with a dash of cranberry jelly, a dab of double cream and a slice of lemon: heaven on a plate after a morning’s pavement-pounding. Smazeny syr (“smajernee sear”) with tatarka is a beer-drinker’s delight, deep-fried cheese served with chips and a tartare mayonnaise. And don’t forget the soup: lunch is the big meal in the Czech day, and it nearly always starts with a bowl of steaming broth. Look out for bramborova polevka (potato), kureci vyvar (chicken) or zeleninova polevka (vegetable).

Part II: On The Cheap

Costa Del Culture

2005-08-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just along the coast from Alicante's tower blocks, Murcia has great food, posh hotels and lots of history, says Rebecca Seal, Travel Writer, The Observer

For many British tourists, Murcia rings bells only as home to La Manga, the five-star golf and spa resort favoured by pop stars and footballers. But the region has lots more to offer: 250km of coast, beautiful beaches, a natural lagoon, a national park and many historic towns. Away from La Manga's highlife pleasures, the region can feel remote and rural, with wide, arid plains and rocky mountains.

The name Murcia derives from the Latin for mulberry, which flourished in the area and was used to nourish silkworms, which in turn fed the economy until just after the Second World War.

Murcia city, which was founded in 825AD by the Moors on the site of a Roman colony, was at its richest in the 18th century, when the silk trade was at its height. The cathedral's facade was updated during this time, and many of the grand buildings and palaces that make Murcia such an elegant town were built to house those profiting from the trade.

British Airways and Ryanair may have started direct flights but Murcia has far fewer tourists than its neighbours Andalusia and Alicante. Menus rarely carry English translations and few locals speak English. It's great if you want to practise your Spanish and can be a wonderful eye-opener. Would you have tried that tasty red pressed fish roe if you'd known what you were ordering?

A ROOM FOR THE NIGHT

Budget: Pensión Hispano, Calle de la Trapería 8, Murcia 00 34 968 216152

There are four Hispanos in central Murcia. This is the cheapest and provides simple, clean accommodation. Doubles from €35.

Moderate: AC Murcia, Avenida Juan Carlos 1, 30009 Murcia (00 34 968 274250).

AC Murcia is a seriously trendy place to stay with sleek rooms, free snacks and booze in the bar and a really good Spanish breakfast. Don't be put off by the 30-minute walk into town; you see a lot more by doing it. Stay at the four-star AC Murcia hotel for just £35 per person, per night including breakfast.

Expensive: Hyatt La Manga and Las Lomas Village, Los Belones, Cartagena, Murcia, (00 34 968 331234).

La Manga Club is about 45 minutes from the town of Murcia and is the same size as Monaco, with a fleet of taxis to ferry you between the private beach, golf courses and restaurants. Stay here for some serious luxurywith double rooms in the main hotel from €150 a night and in Las Lomas Village Deluxe serviced rooms from €79 in low season.

The resort can be booked through Barwell Leisure (020 8786 3092), who can also arrange flights and transfers.

WHERE TO EAT

Budget: Restaurante Hispano, Calle Radio Murcia, Murcia, (00 34 968 216152).

Although it looks quite smart, you can eat a three-course lunch for just €10 at the bar - which is no sacrifice given how friendly the staff are and how close that means you are to the cake cabinet. Try their grilled hake or a selection of tapas.

Moderate: La Parranda, Calle San José 1, Murcia, (00 34 968 221726).

San Juan square is full of restaurants with outside tables that don't begin to fill up until 10pm. There are two La Parrandas: this is the newer one and is tucked into the corner of the square against the old church walls. It's slightly away from the hustle but with a good view of the waiters at other restaurants running around the plaza carrying enormous platters. The wine list is heavily weighted towards local products and the food is exceptional and reasonably priced. You can order much more than two people can eat, with wine and coffee, for under €70. Check out the food on the tables next to you as well - the menu has no English translation so feel free to point at whatever takes your fancy on other people's plates.

Expensive: Rincón de Pepe, Apóstoles, 34, Murcia, (00 34 968 212239).

For Spain, this super-slick restaurant is not cheap, although it is compared with some similar British offerings. It is rightly famed throughout the country for its top-quality food - especially red mullet. For the full experience, try the menú degustación.

WHERE TO DRINK

The streets around the university campus are rich with trendy little bars and some seriously dodgy-looking dives. Grab a beer at one of the many pavement cafes then head down Doctor Fleming (it is a road) to Plaza Beato Andrés Hibernón and visit Aduana Bar, a quiet glass and wood bar with pleasant staff. If you are lucky (for lucky, read female) they might give you a round of shots made from local spirits - a mixed blessing. Then head on to Zero on Andrea Baquero, a dinky little club with loud music and a rather funky clientele. If you can, pick up a flier before you go in for a reduction on your first round of drinks.

STAY ACTIVE

Golf: La Manga Club (00 34 968 175000).

A round of golf here is a must for all aficionados, and you can choose from any of the three 18-hole courses at the resort. Prices start at €89 for nine holes for non-residents, and all equipment can be hired.

Tennis: (00 34 968 175000).

La Manga is also home to a world-famous tennis academy with some of the sport's best coaches, teaching all year round on clay and Astroturf courts. You can have a lesson for €55 or a week-long course with two friends for €299.

Out of town: If manicured golf courses and mown lawns aren't your thing, head back to nature at Sierra de Espuña National Park, which is about 40 minutes' drive from Murcia town. Its 250 square kilometres of highlands and pine-clad peaks are home to an impressive list of birds of prey. You can take a gentle stroll, ride a moutain bike or do a full-on hike through its wilderness. Check out the old ice houses, where snow was packed and stored for use in nearby towns until early last century. For information call the tourist office on 00 34 968 633512.

A couple of hours' drive south-west near Tabernas are the wide, arid plains where scores of spaghetti westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were filmed. Today the film business has moved on, but many of the sets remain, forming the basis of three Wild West theme parks: Mini Hollywood (00 34 950 365236), Texas Hollywood (00 34 950 165458) and Western Leone (00 34 950 165405).

GETTING THERE

Rebecca Seal travelled with British Airways which has flights from London Gatwick to Murcia, from £69. Ryanair flies to Murcia from London Stansted.

FIND OUT MORE

Lonely Planet Spain has an excellent section about Murcia, £14.99, Lonely Planet Publications.

Edited from an article in The Observer, Travel, Rebecca Seal (Guardian Unlimited).

Where Streets Are Paved With Marble

2005-08-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Direct flights have opened up Dubrovnik to weekend visitors. Anushka Asthana, Travel Write for The Observer is captivated

When I first laid eyes on Dubrovnik's main road I had an overwhelming desire to rip off my shoes and slip down it in my socks or, even better, dive belly first and see how far I could slide. The road, known as the Stradun, was so shiny I could almost see my face in it.

'It's made out of pure marble,' a companion told me and I spluttered in disbelief. Isn't marble reserved for the lobbies of five-star hotels or the bathrooms of the super-rich? Apparently not.

But it's not just the polished Stradun that's helping this Croatian jewel move up the list of unmissable city getaways. At under three hours, the flights make the city a viable short break option.

As the coach from the airport snaked its way down the coastline, the views were mesmeric: to my right, mountains with towering, thin cypress trees; to my left, the translucent Adriatic.

The Old City of Dubrovnik came into view, looking almost unreal, as if it were plaster of Paris moulded intricately into hundreds of tiny white buildings, roofs the same shade of orange, packed together inside a circular wall dotted with fortresses. The law insists that the image, so steeped in history and culture, is retained.

In the early 1990s, Dubrovnik was attacked from all sides by the Serbian and Montenegrin elements of the Yugoslav army. Every few steps I could see the scars of shrapnel damage, left as a pointed reminder.

The hotel Excelsior stands just outside the Old City, so close to the sea that the balconies and terraces overhang it. My room was simple and elegant and, on entering, I pulled open the balcony doors, drawing in the fresh sea air. Even from the fifth floor, squinting in the bright afternoon sun, I could make out details on the sea bed.

From here, Dubrovnik transformed with the changing light of the day, ultimately into a silhouette against a hypnotic sunset. It was all I could do to drag myself away for dinner.

Dubrovnik is bliss for food lovers - by the time I stumbled back into Gatwick my stomach was pushing uncomfortably against my once-baggy jeans, but it was worth it. Restaurants in town serve excellent food - three courses for as little as £10 a head with wine. Squid, mussels and risotto are specialities but meat eaters will find plenty to satisfy cravings.

We dined one night at the Taverna Rustica, the Excelsior's own restaurant, done out like a Swiss chalet, serving fish from different parts of Croatia. After delicious shell fish - for the first time ever I wasn't lying when I said I loved the oysters - a black pasta dish with half a lobster landed before me.

As a guitarist serenaded from a balcony above, I spent 20 minutes trying to break open the shell and pull out the meat. It was hard to disguise my embarrassment on discovering eventually that the meat was already sliced and mixed with the pasta.

Later, the cosy Hard Jazz Caffe Troubadour offered a chance to discover the joys of aperitifs and digestifs: plenty of grappa and a local herb brandy. I ordered Ecstasy (a lethal cocktail) and listened to live music, chatting to the regulars.

The owner Marko is famous locally, his claim to fame being that, in the year Cliff Richard came second in the Eurovision Song Contest, Marko and his band came fifth. Over a grappa or three we organised a speedboat trip to the island of Locrum, which you can also reach in summer by larger tourist boat for 15 kuna (£1.50).

Surrounded by a rocky coastline popular with nudists, Locrum has beautiful botanical gardens, an ancient monastery and a fort. Following the signs, I came across a steep, rocky hill and, gasping for air every few minutes, I scrambled up through the fort and out on to the roof.

It was a round building with window holes and I imagined a time gone by when city guardsmen would have stood there poised with bows and arrows. On the steps were some flowers to mark the death of a 22-year-old man in a more recent war, another reminder of what this community has been through.

Looking back to Dubrovnik, I wondered how such a tiny place supports the influx of tourists at the height of summer, then headed down the steep hill to the beach and fell, fully dressed, face first into the freezing water.

Back on the sunny hotel terrace, nursing a gashed knee, I consoled myself with cocktails and the prospect of an imminent massage and algae wrap in the hotel spa. It was here that I met a couple who were moving to Dubrovnik to set up a business hoping to cash in on the booming tourist market - many Germans and Italians already own holiday homes here but now Brits are getting in on the act.

'We had English and Irish banging on our door in the summer, asking if we would sell,' one local woman told me. Not quite ready to set up a home I decided to take in one final luxury. I lay down in my room and let the warm sea breeze float from the balcony doors as I flicked to the news channel to watch the UK weather reports.

Factfile

British Airways has return flights from Gatwick from £99, out and back on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Until 30 September, doubles with sea view at the five-star Excelsior Hotel (00 385 20 414222) start from about £178 per night including breakfast.

For cheap holidays in Croatia look at Late Deals.

The pride of the Balkans

Ljubljana
Slovenia's capital is known by the hip crowd as 'LJ', according to style magazine Wallpaper, yet it feels traditional - made for strollers and drinkers. It's a fairytale canvas of Grimm ginger-tiled baroque and Art Nouveau, a river wrought with bridges apparently jemmied off the Seine, and an Old Town abuzz with wine bars.

Belgrade
The cityscape is Commie-sombre, but the citizens are disco dynamos. Find the action at the Sky Bar or onboard house boats, where dancing on tables to folk or house (or whatever takes your fancy) is the order. By day, there are art galleries glittering with Orthodox icons, earthy fish restaurants and Beogradsko beer for 20p a tankard. They'll soon be calling it the new Prague.

Zagreb
The Croatian capital, opulent collision of Italianate and Balkan, is yet to be overrun with tourists. It is neat and walkable, with parks and pavement cafes, art galleries and architecture. The Regent Esplanade Hotel, the city's only five-star hotel, was built in 1925 for Orient Express passengers and has now been refurbished.

Edited from an article in The Observer, Travel, Anushka Asthana (Guardian Unlimited).

Nice And Cheap

2005-08-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Côte D'Azur and budget don't usually go together. I'll show you how to do it

'Outside the reach of dismal weather and bad moods," is how Maurice Chevalier once described it. Standing on the balcony of the five-star Hotel Negresco, it was easy for a celebrated French entertainer to say. The rest of us usually regard Nice as beyond our budget.

As a self-confessed cheapskate, I approached the city with some trepidation, but I needn't have worried. Nice is every bit the sun-kissed, super-rich city you imagine it to be, but stick to hearty Provençal food, go for drinks in the old town and stay at one of the many old-fashioned hotels around the handsome 19th-century train station, and Nice need not be an expensive destination.

BEACH LIFE

Nice has miles of pebble beach. Unfortunately, there is a system of alternate public/private beaches, which limits long walks along the surf. The beaches are crowded but not full, even in high season. I parked my towel at the seashore on a central public beach at 3pm on Saturday with little bother.

While much of Nice tends to fall quiet after midnight, the beachfront, particularly in front of the opera, comes alive later on. The air is suffused with the sweet smell of sizzling crepes from the makeshift stalls on the Promenade des Anglais. You can watch the midnight volleyball, while further down the beach tangles of teenagers sit smoking or skimming pebbles on the night sea.

VIEUX NICE

At the heart of the city's oldest and most colourful neighbourhood, the elegant Place de Justice is home to pavement cafes, jobbing jazz bands and skateboarders.

Beyond the square, a jumble of alleys are crowded with wine bars advertising happy hour. Only a handful remain open after midnight, but Le Staccato (4, Rue du Pont Vieux, +4 9380 0667) is still going strong until 2.30am and holds jazz concerts in its cellar in the winter months.

Also open late is Fennocchio (2 Place Rossetti, +4 9380 7252), an ice-cream parlour par excellence. Its more unusual offerings include beer sorbet and a surprisingly crisp tomato basilica ice cream.

WHERE TO EAT

In the heart of the old town, but away from the evening crowds, Samsara (2 rue Rosetti, +4 9380 7063), serves food that is pure Provençal, and not expensive. For something even more traditional, La Table Alziari (4 rue Francois Zanin, +4 9380 3403) is a little hidden away at the top of the old town, but once there, don't miss the white bean and tuna salad.

CULTURAL HIGHS

Nice has several world-class museums, not least the Musée Matisse (164, av des Arènes de Cimiez, +4 9381 0808). Henri Matisse wintered in Nice from 1918 until his death in 1954, and this museum in the hills used to be his house. It displays the private collection he bequeathed to the city.

In the 1960s, Nice became the focal point of nouveau realisme, the French version of pop art, and the Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain (Promenade des Arts, +4 9362 6162) features the movement's most famous artist, Yves Klien, as well as work by Warhol, Lichtenstein and Gilbert and George. You can get in free on the first and third Sunday of every month.

At the other end of the Promenade des Anglais is the saucer-shaped Musée d'Arts Asiatiques (405 Promenade des Anglais, +4 9229 3700), which specialises in the history of Buddhism. Outside, the beautiful Phoenix Park features concerts, a bevy of black swans and a greenhouse that is said to be the largest in Europe.

WHERE TO STAY

There is no shortage of cheap hotels and hostels in Nice. Camping is also an option, but the sites are out of town.

Attracted by the rock bottom price, I hoped the Hôtel du Petit Louvre (10 Rue Emma Tiranty, +4 9380 1554) might be the sort of "art hotel" that could be both friendly and full of character. And it was only five minutes' walk from the station. Unfortunately, "art hotel" translated as a few motley pictures hung on the stairwell, the rooms were small and stuffy, the shower didn't work properly and the toilet was shared.

I was more comfortable in the Hôtel Excelsior (19 Av Durante, +4 9388 1805) where the rooms have high ceilings, glass chandeliers and a balcony, and the price includes a passable breakfast in a delightful garden. The hotel is centrally located and the night porter will let you bring your bike indoors.

Hôtel Le Grimaldi (15 rue Grimaldi, +4 9316 0024) is also good value, offering stylish accommodation in a belle epoque-style building on a quiet street a minute's walk from the Promenade des Anglais. It has 46 bedrooms and suites from €85 a night for a double room.

GETTING AROUND

Nice is the fifth largest city in France, so if you want to see it all, and not just the beach and the old town, then hire a bike. At €26 a day from Nicea Location Rent (12 rue de Belgique, +4 9382 4271), bicycle hire is expensive, but what better way to work off all that rich Provençal food?

GETTING THERE

EasyJet, British Airways, Jet2, Thomsonfly and Airport Holidays offer cheap flights to Nice, but the Côte D'Azur is also a realistic destination by train. Take the Eurostar, then cross Paris for the direct connection by TGV to Nice, although the high-speed track stops at Marseilles. After that it is a two-hour trundle along the coast. And by taking La Couchette back to Paris, you can enjoy a three-day break while only paying for two nights in a hotel. You sleep in a bunk and the dawn journey into Paris, along the mirror-like river Seine, is worth getting up half an hour early for.

WHAT I SPENT ON A WEEKEND

Return ticket London Waterloo to Nice: £108
Sandwiches for outbound train journey: £1.20
Commission on changing money: £2.20
Return ticket Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon: £2.10
One night Hôtel du Petite Louvre: £23
Breakfast of pain au chocolate and café noir: £2.20
One night Hotel Excelsior plus breakfast: £36
24 hours bicycle hire: £18.30
Two scoops of ice cream at Fennocchio: £2.10
One large beer at Cayenne KáFe: £3.80
Dinner with a half carafe of wine at Samsara: £14.60
Dinner with a half carafe of wine at La Table Alziari: £23
Two mojitos at Le Staccato: £8.20
Breakfast in the Gar du Nord: £4.20
Entry into Musée Matisse: £2.70
Entry into Musée d'Arts Asiatiques: £3.80
One packet Gauloises Blondes: £2.10

Total: £257.50

Edited from an article in The Guardian, Travel, Sean Dodson (Guardian Unlimited).

Florida Basics

2005-08-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

INFORMATION IN THE UK

Visit Florida is the official information source for travel planning to the Sunshine State.

For other information and brochures, contact the UK representatives of these cities and regions:

Daytona Beach (01737 643764)
Florida Keys and Key West (01564 794555)
Greater Fort Lauderdale (01737 643791)
Greater Miami (01444 443355)
Kennedy Space Center (020 7328 5003)
Kissimmee St Cloud Tourism Bureau (01732 875722)
Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel (01737 644722)
Orlando Tourism Bureau (0800 018 6760)
Palm Beach (020 8876 2742)
Sarasota/Bradenton CVB (020 7257 8891)
St Petersburg/Clearwater (020 8651 4742)
Tampa Bay (020 7253 0254)

SCHEDULED AIRLINES

Florida's main gateways are Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Airlines with direct flights include American Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Others with indirect flights include Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM/Northwest and Icelandic.

For cheap flights click on Cheap Airport Holidays.

TOUR OPERATORS

Almost every UK tour operator has package deals all over Florida this summer. Browse around the official websites or try Late Holiday Deals.

Remember the big four are: TUI, First Choice, MyTravel and Thomas Cook.

CAR RENTAL

Florida has the most competitive prices in the US. With www.skycars.com, one week's hire from any of the major airports starts at £112.

TICKETS

Multi-day passes to the theme parks offer the best value. To save time, buy them in the UK. Orlando FlexTicket covers Universal, SeaWorld and Wet 'n' Wild (adults £108, children aged three to nine £89) and, for Disney, the 10-Day World Ticket, available only in the UK (adults £224, children three to nine £181).

New among some 30 packages from Keith Prowse Attractions Tickets (02890 232425) is the wilderness Gator Safari by Night airboat ride, where you can have dinner and pet a baby alligator (adult £48, child three to 11 £30).

The last six post have been edited from an article in The Daily Telegraph, Travel (Telegraph Online).