Category: Articles

Canary Islands Holidays

From Goa to Egypt, there’s a fantastic mix of must-visit destinations for this year.  Old favourites such as Vanuatu and Bali will continue to be popular and Australian destinations will also be high on the list as travellers choose to explore further afield. Bali will remain a popular destination this year and Greece is always a cheap but exotic paradise – Greece is also often  a cheaper entry point to Europe than London, Paris or Rome.

Tasmania’s unique wilderness, art and culture, focus on food, and colonial history make it perfect for driving holidays awhile Vanuatu has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. Offering a diverse range of island activities and some of the most authentic cultural experiences in the South Pacific, Vanuatu is perfect for an exotic island getaway. The island is also great for those who enjoy adventure. Vanuatu is home to one of the world’s most accessible active volcanoes, Mt Yasur, where you can stand on the rim and look into the bubbling lava below.

Best holiday spot in the Netherlands: In the Netherlands it is typical to find along the coast small and large towns in whose holiday parks the vacationer finds fun and shops. and Rockanje has passed with the best grade. Also ideal is its location in South Holland that allows excursions to nearby Zealand or also to Rotterdam , The Hague and Amsterdam .

Best vacation spot in Italy: After the usual dispute in recent years, between towns of the great Italian lakes, for the title of the best vacation spot in Italy, this year the trophy is awarded to a popular town on the Adriatic coast. Lido degli Estensi  belongs to the lidi ferraresi , a fusion of seven spa towns on the Emilia-Romagna coast . Most visitors spend their holidays in an apartment near the beach, or in one of the holiday parks located in the shade of the pine forests. Lido degli Estensi holidaymakers like not only the beach, but also the great leisure offer, the shopping options and the nightlife

Best vacation spot in Spain: In an extensive bay of the Costa Blanca we find Jávea, in Valencian known as Xàbia. Along with its interesting old town, the beautiful marina and its gastronomic offer, as well as the possibilities for sports and organizing free time, what interests Jávea vacationers the most is naturally its beaches. Very popular is the Arena beach with its promenade that extends in the shape of a crescent to the south of the old town. Those who prefer more tranquility will find what they are looking for in the small coves south of Cabo de la Nao. The qualities of Jávea as an ideal place on the Costa Blanca to spend the holidays.

Our Choice Holidays

WE NO LONGER OFFER Our Choice HOLIDAYS

Our Choice allow customers to personally select brochure material from a wide variety of criteria. Popular brochures include Florida Egypt Cyprus Turkey Our Choice Winter-sun and Our Choice Tropical. Our Choice Holidays is one of the largest and most successful travel companies in Europe employing around 14 000 people.

Our Choice is a tour operator a travel agent and also operates its own airline. The Our Choice Holidays airline Our Choice Airways (formerly Air2000) carries passengers from many of the UK’s regional Airports to destinations including the Canary Islands Greece Cyprus Spain the Algarve Florida Gambia the Caribbean and Goa among many others.

Customer Comments

“I have used Our Choice package holidays before and this is my second time using them. I would certainly use them again and will be later this year. “

“My family and I stayed at Jimmy’s Apartments in Sidari (Corfu). I’m not sure whether our reps from Our Choice will get to see this but I would love them to know that our transfer representative from the airport was really lovely which is what you want when you land at stupid o’clock in the morning!! Our apartments rep did everything she could to help us including problems with our travellers cheques and with my horrendous mosquito bites. I really can’t fault our Our Choice reps “

“I love travelling with Our Choice. They have some great holidays and amazing last minute deals. I can’t thank the Our Choice reps enough for the really great job they do.”.

Prices per person for 2 weeks all-inclusive

The Savoy  £1658 Maritim Jolie Ville Golf £ 987  (Poor Beach frontage) Maritim Royal Peninsula £ 856  (No beach) Baron Palms £ 835 Mirabel Club £ 672 (Poor relation to the fully booked expensive Mirabel Beach) Sultan Gardens £ 636

These are all hotels where I would be happy to return but out of all of them the Sultan Gardens is by far the best value for money. Forgetting the Savoy which is not worth the money, the Maritim Golf would be my favourite for the closest to true 5*  but the beach frontage is poor and some things are not so good at quiet times when you get these prices (it costs a fortune at other times).  I wouldn’t bother with the Peninsula unless it beat the Sultan Gardens prices by a fair bit and more so the Mirabel Club.

The Sultan Gardens is being run in a similar way to the Baron Palms with additional restaurants where you can eat as part of the AI package but the Baron beats it hands down on this front at the moment.  However, coming back to the point, it’s costing you £200 extra for this facility at the Baron  and frankly there is not much to choose between the resorts otherwise.  The Baron is perhaps a little classier and has a more varied food choice but it has one major problem.  The queues for sunbeds start at 6am for the pool opening at 7am.

This is a quick illustration for all the moaners that say their hotel is not 5 ***** without taking into account what they pay.

First – if you want true 5* then expect to pay 5 star prices.  If you haven’t realised it by now, wake up to the fact that our package holiday industry makes it’s own rules up and 5* simply means it’s better than 4* which is better than 3* etc.

The nature of what we do on this site means that we pretty well always go last minute and yes you can get some real bargains but on the whole these bargains tend not to be repeatable as any hotel with a good management team will address reasons why they need to drop prices so low to attract customers.  So on the whole if somewhere is cheap all the time, last minute or not, there is something not quite right.

When I travel with my sister we go cheap – she’s on a tight budget and its not her main holiday.  When I travel with my husband I like a bit of luxury, waiters running round after me with time to chat etc., food that’s exceptional and varied and so on.  So what I am prepared to accept when I holiday with my sister I would not be too thrilled about when I’m with my husband.  The difference is THE PRICE I PAID!!!!!

I would very much like to see the Sultan Gardens go up market.  I think the resort it self and the management team they have could make an excellent job of the beating places like the Maritim and the Baron hands down.  However what they have at the moment appears to be working very well for them.

People who have heard of Bali always associate it with honeymooners, couples and romance. and they are right, because it is a popular destination when you go to Asia to rest after exhaustion involved in organizing and survive your own wedding.

Bali is still more full color since the streets are decorated with garlands of all kinds of colors and more than 10,000 family temples open to the public. It’s a great opportunity to make contact with the locals and see the devotion that are taking all kinds of offerings to their temples. Women generally carry baskets on their heads filled with special dishes for their gods depositing with a mime exquisite. Men lead processions in white and yellow with umbrellas and Balinese dragon called Barong.

Do not miss this event because walking the streets of the island watching this show is priceless. Apart from these temples that normally can not be visited, Bali has others that are open to tourism in various parts of the island. Although the guidelines recommend the Uluwatu temple, we took a big disappointment because after paying a good entry we found that no one could enter the temple as erasi not there and could only get around from which but saw the sea full of garbage and baboons we are characterized as very peaceful.

The quintessential temple that should not be missed is that of Tanah Lot, on the west coast. It is a sanctuary that is isolated when the tide as if on a cliff. The experience of watching the sunset from there is none. In our case we were lucky to have ceremonies with Balinese music and dance, and while we heard drums sound the sun was drowning in the sea. The northern part of the island is also worthwhile because there are rice fields and mountains, with beautiful neon green landscapes.

The beaches are one of the claims of Bali. People with tighter budget staying in Kuta Beach, a place that brings back bad memories for the bomb that exploded in 2002 in one of his clubs and he killed many tourists, but today offers enough security and looks like Benidorm Bali. It is a place full of restaurants and pubs with many British and Italian tourists.

Other nearby beaches or Nusa Dua Semyniak further south are more appropriate for anyone looking for relaxation. In that same beach Semyniak can find some other fantastic as Lucciola restaurant. It’s a bit eyed peas, but the food is very good and is nicely decorated. The fashionable place to eat or have drinks Ku De Ta is the beachfront and lounge music always.  Jimbaran Beach, offered km of sand and the possibility of lunch or dinner delicious seafood at the seaside. It’s what they called the Fish Market, ie a number of restaurants in the sand with fresh fish campfires complete with music. Indonesians are very savvy and sing until Besame Mucho.

Although people go to that beach to dinner, eat alone at noon with the view of the fishing boats and the sea is also worthwhile. So Bali, besides being an island of wonderful beaches, the shopping paradise and lobster, is also a gathering place, especially religious and very hospitable people, and that’s one of the things I value most when I decide to take a trip.