Beach Holiday Deals, News & Ideas

Family Holiday France

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

South of France Holiday – Beaches, Bicycles & Canoes

For something a little different to our traditional summer holiday (relaxing on one of the beaches in Europe) a group of us thought it might be fun to explore the south of France by driving there from the UK using a ferry crossing to get to mainland Europe.

The aim is to not only to enjoy some of the best beaches on the French Riviera, but also to time it so that we can take in a mountain stage of the world’s most famous bicycle race, the Tour de France and perhaps do a little canoeing and camping in the Ardeche region of France.

As there will be 6 of us travelling together, I thought that I would write about the planning of the trip as well as a report after we get back in the hope that some of the information may be of use to others as I feel this could also make for a fantastic family holiday in France.

So the basic plan is (click on the links for more details):

• Hire a Car to Carry 6 People
• Get to France by Ferry or Ferry to Spain and then Drive into France
• Travel to the south of France by car
• Watch a mountain Stage of the Tour de France
• Enjoy some Canoeing in the Ardeche
• Enjoy a day or two on one of the best French beaches

Our accommodation in France will consist of:

• Camping
• Bed & Breakfasts

Tags: Beaches, Canoeing, Family Holiday, Ferries, Ferry, France, French, French Beaches, Tour de France
April 28th, 2009  |  Posted in Europe  |  4 Comments »

Cheap Flight to Dubai

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

With a flight time of around 7 hours from the UK, Dubai is not a short distance away and as such it can often be difficult finding any sort of cheap flights.

Lastminute.com currently have a Flight Sale on and one of the destinations in the sale is Dubai. As with most deals, I am often sceptical as to what is the catch. With flights, it is often that you have to fly on an exact day and possibly with some airline you have never heard of. So I have done the homework for you:

Cheap Flights Dubai
I have just done a quick search and at the moment you can get return tickets to Dubai from around £230, depending on what airline and what days you choose to fly on.

Some examples

• Royal Brunei Airlines £230 return
• Qatar Airways £244 return
• Etihad Airways £243 return

For more details, take a look at the Lastminute.com Top Flight Offers

The cheap flight prices listed above are for travel dates between 30th April and up until July – The prices start to rise in July when the cheapest price is then £321. As you can see the airlines are also some of the best, infact I would go as far to say that Qatar Airways is probably the best airline in the world and unlike some low cost airlines, the ones above won’t surprise you with hidden fees, these prices include taxes and fees!

As well as cheap flights to Dubai in their sale, lastminute.com also have some other great deals:

• Virgin Atlantic : Heathrow to New York £284 return
• Virgin Atlantic: Heathrow to Hong Kong £363 return
• Etihad Airways: Heathrow to Johannesburg £383 return
• Emirates Airways: Gatwick to Bangkok £400 return
• Etihad Airways: Heathrow to Sydney £560 return

For more details, check out the Beach Holiday Guide to:

• Dubai Cheap Holiday Packages
• Cheap Flights to Dubai

Or to Check and book the Dubai flights as well as all the other deals:

Tags: Cheap Flights, Dubai, Dubi, Flight Deals, Flights, Middle East
April 24th, 2009  |  Posted in Flights, Middle East  |  Comments Off

Ryanair Fat Tax

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

Believe it or not, but now the beach Holiday guides favourite airline to hate, Ryanair is now considering how to charge extra for “Very Large Passengers” This comes after more than 30,000 passengers voted in favour of charging excess weight fees for very large passengers.

“Over 100,000 passengers logged on to ryanair.com to take part in our competition and almost one in three (over 30,000) think that very large passengers should be asked to pay a fat tax.” this is according to Stephen McNamara of Ryanair.

Other charges voted for on the on-line poll include:

• 29% – Excess fees for very overweight passengers
• 25% – €1 for toilet paper – with O’Leary’s face on it
• 24% – €3 to smoke in a converted toilet cubicle
• 14% – Annual subscription to access Ryanair.com
• 8% – €2 “corkage” fee for passengers who bring their own food onboard.

Ryanair is now considering how to implement such a charge and is now asking it’s passengers to vote, on which format the charge should take:

• Charge per kg over 130kg/20 stone (male) and 100kg/15 stone (females)
• Charge per inch for every waist inch over 45 inch (male) and 40 inch (female)
• Charge for every point in excess of 40 points on the Body Mass Index (+30 points is obese)
• Charge for a second seat if passengers’ waist touches both armrests simultaneously.

Again according to Stephen McNamara of Ryanair:

“The above four points seem to us to be the simplest, fairest and administratively easiest to apply.

“In all cases we have set limits at very high levels so that a ‘fat tax’ will only apply to those really large passengers who invade’ the space of the passengers sitting beside them.

“These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight and hopefully feel a little lighter and healthier.

“The revenues from any such fat tax will be used to lower the airfares for all Ryanair passengers yet further. Passengers can vote for their preference on www.ryanair.com until April 27.”

So, do you think Ryanair is seriously considering charging extra for larger customers, or is this is all another publicity stunt?

Tags: Cheap Airlines, Ryanair
April 22nd, 2009  |  Posted in Europe, Flights  |  Comments Off

Prague City Breaks

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

Now I know that Prague is nowhere near the beach, but this is a follow on from a post that I made a few weeks back about a company selling rooms at hotels in Prague for £1 per night. This deal was way too good to miss and I decided to snap up a 2 night Prague city beak for myself. So now as a follow up I have decided to review not only the hotel, but also include my short guide to cheap Prague holidays based on my experience.

Prague Flights
To find the cheapest holidays, especially to European destinations, I usually recommend booking a package holiday deal with the hotel and flights included. Because I had already got an incredible deal and booked the hotel separately, I would also have to find the best deals on flights to Prague. I went through all the airports nearest to us, looking to find the ones that offered Prague flights, we eventually booked our tickets with the ever popular easyJet, they flew on the days that we needed and were the cheapest.

Airlines that fly to Prague that you can look at include:

• EasyJet who fly from London Gatwick, Stanstead, East Midlands and Bristol
• British Airways
• Swiss Airways
• Ryanair, who fly from the East Midlands, Birmingham and Dublin to Prague
• SkyEurope (http://www.skyeurope.com) Who fly from London Luton to Prague

Hotels in Prague
As you would expect with any of the worlds favourite city break destinations, Prague has plenty of hotels as well as other types of accommodation to suite all types of budgets. Unless you know specifically which hotel you want to stay at, I would recommend booking through a site like lastminute.com, or like I did, HotelConnect.co.uk. Now I can’t promise you that you are going to get a stay at a hotel for £1 per night like I did, but these sites do often have promotions on and even if they don’t have one when you wish to travel, the fact that you can quickly compare hotels makes choosing the right one for your needs that much easier.

Botel Racek
We ended up staying on a floating hotel and whilst it is probably true to say that the boat hotel is more unique than it is luxurious, it was perfectly comfortable. I think that it’s usual price of around £62 per night for a double bedroom works out as good value. The hotel was less than 15 minutes away to the old city centre by tram, which runs right behind the hotel. You can even take a very pleasant walk into the main part of Prague along the Vltava river, something that I did twice over the weekend. If you are on a real budget, you may wish to stay at the Fortuna Rhea Hotel in Prague that offers basic accommodation at a very affordable price, around £30 for a double room per night. Both this and the Botel Racek are available to book from HotelConnect.co.uk.

Holidays To Prague
As mentioned earlier, unless you get a really good deal on either your Prague flights or your hotel, you will probably find the cheapest holidays to Prague by booking an all inclusive package holiday. My favourite website for this is www.lastminute.com who not only offer Holidays, but also flights and hotels and so make it really simple for you to compare what will work best for you.

Prague Weather
Our trip to Prague was in mid April and the weather was fantastic, what I would call perfect spring weather. Cloudless blue skies without being to hot. Generally Prague has a continental climate meaning that they have hot summers and cold winters. Probably the best time to visit Prague is late April and May and then again in September when the weather is not too hot or too cold and the city is not too crowded. In the middle of summer, it is not unusual for daytime temperatures to reach 35C and in winter it can be as cold as -15C. The average high temperature from May to September is 22C and the average low is 12C, with an average of 7 hours of sunshine. Spring and summer are usually the sunniest months while the period between May and August is the wettest.

Prague Top Tips

Use the Trams: The trams around the city are fantastic and cheap as well. You can buy 24 hour, 3 day or even week long passes that will save you even more if you use it often.

Something to Eat: Take a walk around the district known as the Mala Strana side (lesser side) – located just across the Charles Bridge from Old Town, at the bottom of the hill that leads up to Prague Castle Compared to the other side of the river, the area is quiet and very up-scale, it is the most exclusive neighbourhood in Prague and is home to many of the worlds embassies. Many of Prague’s finest restaurants can be found here, as well as elegant cafes and tourist shops. Situated alongside the river.

Get away from the crowds: Prague has many excellent parks and none better than the Vojan Park, the oldest partly preserved garden in Prague. It is a part of the former fruit garden, founded after 1248 after a bishop´s court was demolished it became a garden of the Carmelite convent in Prague in the 17th century. Kampa Park not far away is also a nice place to enjoy the beautiful views of Prague.

Tags: Cheap Hotel, Cheap Hotels, Europe, Hotel, Prague
April 21st, 2009  |  Posted in Europe  |  Comments Off

Ryanair: How to Beat their Hidden Costs

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

A while back I wrote an article on how Ryanair is not as cheap as they say on the box, with all their “hidden” fees it can make comparing the cost of flights with other airlines a real nightmare and perhaps give you a real nasty surprise when you arrive at the airport to check-in. Should you decide to read the additional charges page on the Ryanair website, it will probably take longer than many of their flights and so with this in mind and if you are still hell bent on flying with Michael O’Leary’s money grabbing machine, here is the Beach Holiday Guides tips to lessening the pain with Ryanair this summer:

No More Check in desks at the airport.

From May 1, if you book with Ryanair, you’ll have no choice but to check in via www.ryanair.com and print your boarding card yourself. If you fail to do so the fee for airport check-in has just risen from £4.75 to £10 per person per one-way flight, and from May 1 it doubles again to £20. That’s not all… let me explain, these fees are what you pay if you opted for airport check-in when booking. If you don’t pay then but just turn up at the airport check-in desk, the fees double again. So if you as a family of four check in this summer for your beach holiday, the traditional, unplanned way could find yourselves having to pay £320 extra on a return flight this summer (£40 per person each way).

Even if you check-in on-line, you have to pay, it has introduced a new ‘web check-in fee’ of £5 per person only for those who have baggage… who can possibly go on holiday without baggage?

• So pay for you checked-in baggage in advance, online. If you pay at the airport, Ryanair’s fee for checking in a bag is twice as high – that is, £40 on a return flight.
• To avoid Ryanair’s stupidly high debit and credit-card payment fee Pay with Visa Electron. If you don’t have one.. either get one or you will have to pay!
• Keep within luggage limits. Ryanair recently started being much stricter in enforcing its one-bag hand-luggage rule and this includes duty-free purchases. You will risk being fined £30 at the departure gate for an extra bag. As for checked-in bags, try using less bags, Ryanair charge per bag…. hell why not get one massive bag for the whole family!
• Don’t bother with the £3 per flight priority boarding, it is a load of rubbish!
• Make sure you get the names right and are exactly as they appear on the passports, changing them costs £150 for a return flight!
• Beware of the Ryanair’s travel insurance, it can be way more expensive than using other companies.

So are we picking on Ryanair?

Whilst it is true that pretty much all the budget airlines have extra charges, but Ryanair’s are usually the highest and, given that the airline’s advertised fares are often the lowest, it does look like they are trying to cheat everyone into thinking that they are the cheapest airline. So it is vitally important that when comparing the cost of you flights to Ibiza this summer to make sure you are taking into account the whole expense of flying with different airlines, including all extras, before booking. (It’s a nightmare I know!)

If you have bags to check in, you will probably find that it is cheaper to fly with an alternative to Ryanair that has lower fees for checked bags, airlines like easyJet, or even with a full-service airline, like British Airways.

British Airways has a generous free checked-in baggage allowance and doesn’t charge extra for carrying most pieces of sporting equipment such as golf or ski bags, ogh and you don’t have to run for your seat!

… enjoy your flight!

Tags: airlines, Cheap Flights, cost of flights, Flights, low cost airlines, no frills airline, Ryanair, Tips
April 1st, 2009  |  Posted in Flights  |  Comments Off

Cheap Hotel Deals Too Good to be True?

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

I don’t think So!

A few weeks ago I wrote about a £1 a night Cheap Hotel Deal being offered by HotelConnect and I decided that if the hotel location was right for me, I would take a look and see If I could purchase a few nights at a hotel myself, thinking that this offer may be just too good to be true. I set myself a reminder on my calendar to take a look at the website a few hours before the deal was set to go live.

In due course, I found out that the £1 a night deals were to be for hotels in Prague. Now I know that it is not a beach holiday location, but I have never been to Prague and I thought that a weekend city break would make a nice change and heck the hotels were only going to cost me £1 a night right?

The time for the deal to begin was at 10am, as that time arrived I went to the page and immediatly you could tell that there must be something up as the whole of the HotelConnect website had really slowed down, infact in some cases it had stopped. An offer like this must generate a huge amount of interest and I guess that their servers were just not able to handle the huge increase in traffic.

Anyway, with patience I could see that there were indeed hotels available and through trying a few times (their booking system crashed twice) I can confirm that I have now booked 2 nights at the Botel Racek Hotel Prague and it cost me exactly £2 fantastic! (see booking confirmation below)

According to HotelConnect I will be staying at “cosy comfortable boat hotel, close to the castle and within easy access to the old town of Prague. Rooms at the Botel Racek Hotel Prague are simple and functional cabins and are all en suite with a shower. You can enjoy Czech food in the restaurant or have a drink on the deck with great views over the river. ”

I have to admit that the Botel Racek Hotel was not my first choice, but as the £1 a night sign up page on their website says, all their 400+ £1 hotel rooms in Prague were sold out in 2 hours and so they were going fast and for the dates that were suitable for me, this was my only choice, but staying in a boat hotel could be fun.

I have to say that even though their site was really slow on the morning of the deal, it is usually great and I was even before booking this hotel deal, a big fan. A few days after booking the hotel, I got the conformation in the post, with a nice little map of the city of Prague… I can’t wait!

I hope that the promotion was a success for HotelConnect.co.uk and that they have another ones soon, but even if you missed it, they have many other offers on fantastic hotels, including 50% off in over 200 destinations, so go and check them out.

Tags: Cheap Hotel, Cheap Hotels, City Break, Holiday Deals, Hotel, HotelConnect.co.uk, Hotels, Prague
March 6th, 2009  |  Posted in Europe, Holiday Deals  |  2 Comments »

Ryanair Not So Cheap

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

One thing that has always bugged me about some of the no frills airlines that offer “cheap flights” are all the hidden costs. When checking the price of a holiday or a flight to your next beach holiday destination, you can easily be duped into thinking that you have found the cheapest flight because these hidden costs are not shown up in the price of the flight.

One of the worst culprits of this for me are Ryanair, just take look at how long their Table of Fees page is on their website! Sure you may think that you have found the cheapest flight to Malta ever, but did you know that you will now pay £4.75 (5 euros) per person per one way just as a credit card charge (unless you pay by Visa Electron and that is only for a limited period!)! So as a family of four people flying on their summer holiday, you will be charged 4 x £4.75 for the journey there and then 4 x £4.75 for the way back, a total of £38, just for paying by credit or debit card!

Then did you know that it will cost you £9.50 per bag that you check in, so let’s just say that our family of four are travelling pretty light and only have 1 bag each to check in, that is another £38. If you check in a second bag, it will cost you £19.

Another hidden cost is the airport that you are flying to, many of the low cost airlines say that they fly to Rome for example, but in reality they are flying to a much smaller airport, Ciampino which is outside Rome and used to be an old military airport. It will then cost you money and time which is important if you are on a short break to then travel into the city.

So we have added a further £76 pounds to the cost of your flights as well as other transport fees and if that is not bad enough, the fact that these costs are almost hidden from the original quote to me is outrageous. It really makes comparing prices between different airlines very difficult, so just something you should be aware of the next time you see a flight offered to Barcelona for £30 as it could end up costing you a whole lot more!

Below are a few of Ryanair’s current additional Charges:

• Airport Check-In Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £4.75 (on-line check-in is free)
• Payment Handling Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £4.75
• Priority Boarding Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £1.90 (if you do not want to run for your seats)
• Infant Fee – Per Infant/Per One Way flight £19 (must be under 2 years for both outbound and return flight)
• Checked Baggage Fees – £9.50
• 2nd & 3rd Bag – £19
• Sports Equipment – Per Item/ Per One Way Flight: £28.50
• Musical Equipment – Per Item/ Per One Way Flight: £28.50
• Flight Change Fees – Per Passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £24
• Name Change Fee – £95

Tags: airlines, cost of flights, Flights, low cost airlines, no frills airline, Ryanair
February 24th, 2009  |  Posted in Flights  |  1 Comment »

Cheap Caribbean Holidays

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

Recession in the UK and the United States has resulted in a sharp fall in the number of people taking holidays in the Caribbean, the fall of the pound has also meant that many of the most popular Caribbean islands like Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua that peg their currencies to the US dollar are not as cheap as they once were and then there is the recent scandal involving the Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford.

It is almost as if a mini tourism tsunami has hit the Caribbean this year, so much has gone wrong for this group of islands that are so dependant on sun-seeking holidaymakers visiting them. But because of this there are plenty of excellent Caribbean holiday deals to be had as tour operators begin either slashing their prices or offering what’s called “added value” so for example free nights (ten for the price of seven), or adding the meals at no extra cost when they normally charge on the basis of room only or bed and breakfast.

Example Caribbean holiday deals
I took a quick look at some of the most popular tour operators and here are some of the best deals on Caribbean holiday packages in 2009 that I could find:

Virgin Holidays: Virgin Holidays Special Offers
One of Virgin Holidays specialities are holidays in the Caribbean and they currently are offering a site wide deal saving you 10% if you book you Summer 2010 holiday on-line. If you are after something a little sooner they still have some good deals including:
Barbados
7 nights at the 3 star Silver Sands hotel in Barbados in September for £549 (was £ 649) Departing from London Gatwick or Manchester airports.
Located in Little Bay which is quiet and secluded with 14 acres of gardens beside the beach.
Facilities include: Weddings, Hot tub, Frequent Virgin Club, Tennis, Scuba Diving, Swimming Pool, Fitness Centre and Windsurfing.

Kuoni: www.kuoni.co.uk
Kuoni, the luxury holiday tour operator have extended their beach holiday sale up until March the 16th, as well as offering a further 5% off for on-line purchases:

St Lucia
7 nights at a 3 star St Lucian By Rex Resorts hotel from £624 (Save up to £575)
This holiday is being offered at almost half price and is right on famous Reduit Beach, located in the Rodney Bay area of St Lucia.
The price quoted is if you fly from Manchester in February or march. prices rise a little if you fly from London.

Lastminute.com: Worldwide holidays on Lastminute.com
Lastminute.com are one of my favourite Tour operators and they almost always have some sort of a deal on, so why not try something a little different:

Caribbean Cruise
A 4* Full-Board Ocean Village Caribbean Cruise that departs from Barbados, arriving back 7 nights later that includes flights from London Gatwick or Manchester from only £795 (this includes a 5% discount), is incredible value.

A cruise is an excellent way to see a variety of the Caribbean islands, without adding more travelling costs to your holiday:

A Typical itinerary:

• Day 1: Fly from the U.K to Barbados where you will be met and transferred to the Ocean Village ready for embarkation and set sail from Bridgetown at 20.00
• Day 2: Enjoy a day cruising
• Day 3: Arrive in Tortola at 08.00, departing at 13.00
• Day 4: Arrive in St Barts at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 5: Arrive in Antigua at 08.00 departing at 17.30
• Day 6: Arrive in Martinique at 08.00 departing at 17.00
• Day 7: Arrive in Grenada at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 8: Arrive back in Barbados at 08.00, ready for disembarkation and a return flight back to the UK.If you are on the 14 night cruise, you have the day to discover Barbados.
• Day 9: Enjoy a day cruising
• Day 10: Arrive in St Kitts at 08.00, departing at 18.00
• Day 11: Arrive in St Maarten at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 12: Arrive in Guadeloupe at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 13: Arrive in St Lucia at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 14: Arrive in Dominica at 08.00 departing at 17.00
• Day 15: Arrive back in Barbados at 08.00, ready for disembarkation and a return flight back to the UK.

You can also add on nights in Barbados before the start or after the end of your cruise.

For more details on this Caribbean Cruise

Cheap Caribbean Holiday Tips:

Other than these deals here are a few points to keep in mind to make sure that you keep the cost of a holiday to the Caribbean as cheap as possible:

Travel outside of the Peak Holiday Season
The summer here is the low season in the Caribbean and this is when holiday prices much lower than that during the peak winter months. Because the prices are already being reduced, who knows what is going to happen this year, but because the islands are struggling for business even now during high season, they are probably going to be really desperate during the off-season months, so chances are there will be even more incredible Caribbean holiday deals to be found.

Avoid the islands when they are playing international cricket
Cricket is huge in the West Indies and not only to the local fans. Travelling fans will fill up the local hotels and thus drive up the prices of not only accommodation, but also flights as well. So try to avoid an island that is hosting international cricket during your stay, that is unless you wish to watch it! England are currently touring the West Indies until April 2009 so take a look at the England in West Indies 2009 – Schedule before you book.

Book your Caribbean holiday through an on-line tour operator
The major on-line tour operators are likely to offer the best rates as their overheads are less than their shop front versions. They are also geared up to offering deals to entice holiday seekers. They also often make it much easier to compare the prices at different times of the year, for example Kuoni’s website, www.kuoni.co.uk, who have a beach holiday sale up until the 16th of March and are offering a further 5% off on-line also has an excellent calendar showing the prices of a specific holiday on different departure dates. You can see at a glance that, by staying at Sandals Whitehouse European Village & Spa in Jamaica on April 21 instead of April 4, you would save over £500. Lastminute.com also have this great feature.

Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, Caribbean Cruise, Caribbean Holiday Deals, Cheap Caribbean Holidays, Cheap Holidays, Holiday Deals, St Lucia, Virgin holidays
February 21st, 2009  |  Posted in Caribbean, Holiday Deals, Winter Sun Holidays  |  Comments Off

Hotels for £1 a night!

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

Beach Hotel

That’s right, HotelConnect.co.uk are offering hotel rooms for sale from £1 a night from Thursday 26th of February and the offer will continue until they run out.

You can really grab yourself a bargain and get a great cheap hotel deal that definitely won’t break your budget!

If you miss this offer on Thursday, HotelConnect.co.uk, have many other offers on fantastic hotels, including 50% off in over 200 destinations.

HotelConnect who?
HotelConnect were established in 1993 and are an independent award–winning accommodation specialist offering over 2000 handpicked and honestly reviewed hotels in 200 destinations and specialise in quality hotel accommodation at excellent rates. They frequently feature great promotions on their website including “2 nights for the price of 1″, “Winter Sales” and “Summer of Free Nights” being regular favourites in the calendar. Furthermore, we always have up to 50% off hotels in top destinations worldwide.

50% Off Hotel Sale – This Friday Only:

As well as the fantastic offer from HotelConnect.co.uk, Lastminute.com are also offering an incredible 50% off selected hotels including this:

4* Barcelona 50% off if you book on the 20th Feb

As well as Barcelona they have a 50% off on a 4* hotel in Madrid, Amsterdam, Prague and a 3 star hotel in Paris. The only catch is you have to book on Friday the 20th of February.

Tags: Cheap Hotel, Cheap Hotels, Holiday Deals, Hotel Sale, HotelConnect.co.uk, Hotels, Lastminute.com
February 19th, 2009  |  Posted in Holiday Deals  |  Comments Off