Spec me a holiday destination

Philtor · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:59

Kingy said:
We both like English food and culture

Go to the Caribbean man. Cyprus is too expensive and geared up for young peeps these days. The idea behind a foreign holiday is you eat the local food, not your typical English grub (sounds rich coming from an Irish man) but hit the Caribbean and bring a decent camera with you

Holiday of a lifetime!

POB · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:03

[TW]Fox;18651811 said:
This is why I am not looking forward to going

They don't venture much further then Orlando typically. There is still plenty of unspoilt Florida :cool:

.

Mark3h · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:23

Kingy said:
We both like English food and culture, but would like it somewhere a little warmer for a fortnight or so

Broaden your horizens and try new things, or your love of everything homely will make any holiday you go on the same as any other week off.
But, here is one for cyprus.
Villa w/ Private pool.
http://www.jamesvillas.co.uk/cyprus/coral-bay/morfo-3881/

Works out at 791PP for 2 weeks in march. Flights from gatwick.
Taxi from airport or car hire I'd imagine could be done through the villa company.

mr.bond · 12 Mar 2011 at 00:24

Try a cruise. I did not like the idea, had one and would like to do another (when money permits). Not cheap, but you'll enjoy a good selection of food, some top chefs feeding you, and a good selection of bars to relax (think my ship had 7). Bonus you get to dress like james bond, and see many different places.

Kingy · 12 Mar 2011 at 08:49

Mark3h said:
Broaden your horizens and try new things, or your love of everything homely will make any holiday you go on the same as any other week off.
But, here is one for cyprus.
Villa w/ Private pool.
http://www.jamesvillas.co.uk/cyprus/coral-bay/morfo-3881/

Works out at 791PP for 2 weeks in march. Flights from gatwick.
Taxi from airport or car hire I'd imagine could be done through the villa company.

Cheers for the link. Looks very nice but I'd rather be closer to the beach, and I've always thought the Villa thing makes much more sense if there's more than just a couple going...

#Chri5# said:
I'd ditch Gibraltar - two days would see it all IMHO. We spent a day there two years ago and wouldn't hurry back.

Arse, I thought Gibraltar might be good given the forces presence out there.

Would be nice to check out the sort of place we could dream about buying a business and moving to... Long distant dream that though...

philtorrens said:
Go to the Caribbean man. Cyprus is too expensive and geared up for young peeps these days. The idea behind a foreign holiday is you eat the local food, not your typical English grub (sounds rich coming from an Irish man) but hit the Caribbean and bring a decent camera with you Holiday of a lifetime!

See even in Resturants over here, I almost always order something I know I like rather than try something new.

What's the food like in the carribean? Anybody been to the Dominican Republic? Or is it Barbados or nothing? Any other good islands out there to look out for?

When we went to Egypt a couple of years ago we just went onto Trip Advisor and found the best rated hotel we could afford, so we'll probably do that again, but I'm just after some ideas atm.

I need some sort of flowchart/questionaire where I can put in what we're looking for, and have it spit out a shortlist with a summary for each location.

Are travel agents generally worth bothering with, or am I just going to walk into a sea of polyester clad dollies flogging whatever carries the greatest commision?

Kingy · 12 Mar 2011 at 08:54

mr.bond said:
Try a cruise. I did not like the idea, had one and would like to do another (when money permits). Not cheap, but you'll enjoy a good selection of food, some top chefs feeding you, and a good selection of bars to relax (think my ship had 7). Bonus you get to dress like james bond, and see many different places.

See the cruise thing sounds ideal in some respects. Familiar food, an english feel, and entertainment etc, but it has too major flaws:-

I don't want to dress up every night.
Digging a huge hole on a boat is likely to be hard work, and would probably annoy the Captain...

Ideal temps would be around 25oC, which might be asking a bit much of the Med in March/April? Is the Carribean good around this time of year? ie, is there a 'season'? When does it start to get windy over there?

craptakular · 12 Mar 2011 at 09:50

Advert on the picture box last night said £599pp for a week to Barbados with British Airways

Kingy · 12 Mar 2011 at 14:46

Ok, hadn't realised that part of the country is having Easter School Holdays from the 8th of April, so we're looking from 28/03 to 08/04...

I've had a look at some average temperatures for March/April, and I think the Med is giong to be too cold. So Florida / Caribbean is looking favourite...

BAppleton · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:47

Ibizzzza baby

FISHGUTS · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:59

http://www.breezes.com/resorts/breezes-grand-negril/

I had a fantastic holiday there.
If I had up to 2k per person to spend and no kids I'd go again in a heartbeat.

Kingy · 16 Mar 2011 at 06:49

FISHGUTS said:
http://www.breezes.com/resorts/breezes-grand-negril/

I had a fantastic holiday there.
If I had up to 2k per person to spend and no kids I'd go again in a heartbeat.

Looks nice, but vaccination issues so close to flying out ruled out the Caribbean in the end.

Having realised that the Canaries are North West Africa, rather than Spain, and are a few degrees warmer than the rest of the Med, we decided that short haul was best this time round, and to spend what we saved on flights, on extra nights away.

The top rated Canaries Hotel on Trip Advisor was affordable as it was only a four star, so we've booked that.

Managed to save £850 on the hotel via LowCostHolidays.com instead of Thomas Cook etc, and found some cheap flights too. QuidCo is awesome too, as 6% cashback should be coming this way too, which was a nice little bonus.

17 nights relaxing in the sun, can't wait... :cool:

Thanks to all that helped..