Cheap hotels in Malta

Looking for a bargain break to Malta ?

Malta Bargains UK have got package holidays to Malta under £200pp, and hotel only from around the £12 per person per night mark. Even though Malta is in the Euro zone, with prices like these and a bottle of wine available for under €1 you can have a holiday in Malta without breaking the bank!

Malta has been a favourite holiday destination with Brits for years. Now low cost airlines are flying there so it's possible to get a great value holiday in the sun. The very presence of low cost carriers such as easyJet has forced tour operators to reduce the price of their packages and their flight only offers so this is a great time for consumers.

Hotelicopter

Just 18 luxuriously appointed rooms featuring min-bar, coffee machine, wi-fi. Nothing special so far then . . .














but take a look at the exterior . . . . . .






























The hotelicopter (if not a hoax ?!) is a project to convert a huge Mil V - 12 Soviet transporter helicopter into the world's first flying hotel.
More at hotelicopter.com

Boston flights with Virgin

As part of their 25th birthday celebrations, each week Virgin Atlantic have a special fare on one of their routes. This week it is the wonderful city of Boston.

Economy from £250pp
Premium Economy from £499pp

Book by 1st April 2009 - Travel by end of May and easter excluded.

This is a great price for this time of year which got me looking for some hotel deals in Boston.

Hotels.com have rooms for £34 a night - but this is out of town. To get something in the city centre its closer to £90 a night e.g. Boston Park Plaza.

Renting out Gingerbread House !

Fancy renting out a unique property in the heart of an enchanted forest ?

Read on this is very unique !

"The delicious gingerbread house has been constructed with only the finest quality gingerbread. The property benefits from toffee insulation, double-iced windows, and has a chocolate-coated nougat roof. It has been beautifully decorated with mouth-watering features including dolly mixtures, candy canes, gobstoppers, sherbet lemons, liquorish allsorts and many, many more."

But how do you get there ?

"Shuttle buses run regulary from Troll Bridge airport to the village. Then it's just a short journey to the house on foot - simply follow the breadcrumb trail!"

OK, so somone at holidaylettings had some fun writing this. As well as this - Buckingham Palace on holiday lettings

Easter Holiday in Devon or Cornwall

Not booked an Easter holiday yet ?

Fancy a UK break ?

Want the space and privacy of a holiday home ?

Fancy Devon / Cornwall ?

You might like this . . .

Last minute Easter offers in SouthWest England- Save 25%!

Book your Easter break before Friday 3rd April 2009 and you will receive up to 25% off
7 night breaks taken between the 4th and 18th April 2009. Show me all special offers

Prices from £9 per person per night !

Jet2 holidays discount code

Discount Code for Jet2 holidays 2009

Use at Jet2holidays.com

Promo code for 10% off = summersun

All Holidays booked between 12th March 2009 and 31st May 2009*

All Holidays departing between May 1st 2009 and September 30th 2009* and returning within this period (on or before 30th September 2009)

Minimum spend of £150 per person applies. Holidays under this amount are not entitled to the discount.

Holidays to all Jet2holidays.com destinations.

Discount is on basic package holiday price and does not include transfers, car hire, excursions or insurance. With exception of Sharm el Sheik where transfers are included in the basic package holiday price.

Amendments and Cancellations will be subject to the normal terms and conditions.

Discount is not to be used in conjunction with any other offer.

*Offer is subject to availability and there are a restricted number of holidays available in conjunction with this promotion.

Jet2holidays.com Terms and Conditions apply.

Win holidays in France and Spain

Nothing is better than free of charge, here is a chance to win free holidays (no travel though) to Pierre & Vacance holiday parks in France and Spain.

It's an online game where you get entries for playing. All pretty easy. Top prize is a holiday a year for 10 years !

Edit : Now closed. For more free comps with holidays as prizes check winholiday.co.uk

Easter UK hotel breaks

Easter break inspiration from laterooms.com

3 Recommended hotel breaks if you are staying in the UK this Easter.

• Park Plaza, Nottingham
  A very modern hotel across the road from Nottingham Castle and the Robin Hood Museum.
  
  
• Big Blue Classic Hotel, Blackpool
  Ideal for family breaks - family rooms sleep 2 adults and 2 children + check out the excellent reviews !
  
  
• Ramada Encore, York
  Within the city walls - A base from which to explore the city
  
  
  

Blue Chip Vacations

Luxury self catering in Devon and Cornwall

Although this is primarily a blog about booking hotels, I find it hard to ignore the trend for people to go for holiday home rentals or apartments.

Many people are finding the delights of renting a "home" or apartment instead of a hotel. More privacy, more character, better facilities. Who wouldn't ? well people who prefer not to cook, make beds or tidy up after the kids perhaps!

This is also helped by the increase in supply as this article demonstrates : people are renting their holiday homes out of necessity. The other trend we can't ignore in 2009 is the UK holiday revival.

So this week I have been casting an over Blue Chip Vacations who have over 500 properties in Devon and Cornwall on their books (as well as couple of Eco-lodges in Somerset). Now I must admit, I don't really like the name of the company, sounds like something to do with timeshare but it's not. And I love their website. Let me start by showing you a couple of photos from the area. . . .




Now, have a look at some photos of accommodation, remember there are 500 properties to choose from. Most are rated 4 or 5 star by visitBritain. There are some cool search options on the website such as "properties with hot tubs" (there are 10). There's also video tours and 360' tours, and regular special offers.


Consider you could also visit Jamie Oliver's restaurant near Newquay, go to the Eden project, go surfing . . . .and now you can fly right into Newquay or Plymouth from many UK airports thanks to Air Southwest you have the makings of a wonderful holiday. What's more you will be helping UK PLC while you are at it. I think we need it !

Phew, that was the longest article I have done here for a long time, you can tell I'm really excited about the prospect of a holiday in Devon / Cornwall and staying in one of the Blue Chip Vacations properties. Now I just have to decide which place to stay (or maybe do combine a couple in a multi-centre holiday), but I should be quick because 2009 will be the year of the British holiday boom which means the best places are getting full.

James Villas Booking Review

Despite the name, James Villas sell more than just villas.
For starters they sell packages including villas and flights which gives full ATOL protection.

The reason I am writing about them though is that they also offer a selection of leisure resorts. What they have done is handpicked a collection of properties which offer private accomodation with the facilities typically found in a villa, but on leisure complexes so you get excellent sports facilities and or restaurants a flying champagne cork two's distance away.

I just did one price test to see how they compare and did the first hotel in their list the Royal Garden Villas in Tenerife ( sounds amazing by the way!). Randomly, I selected a one week holiday from 11 Sep 2009, 2 adults and 2 kids, and looked at the below websites in this order and got these prices :

James Villas - £2988
Cheap hotels in Tenerife - £2043
Low Cost Holidays - £2050
Thomson - £2212
Hotels.com - £2589

In each case I was looking at the entry level villa the "princess villa" and with B&B.
So, unfortunately for James Villas in this review. just one test they came out the most expensive choice for this option so either they were just unlucky or they should stick to villas.
In reality, most people would add flights to the booking so I should have tested that out, in a future review I will revisit this and do a couple of package price comparisons. If there are particular websites you want me to consider on my next review or if you have first hand experience of a James Villas booking please share by using the comments section.

Click the banner below to find out more about James Villas Holidays.

Looking for hotel inspiration ?

Top 10 hotels lists from Hotels.co.uk are here if you need some hotel booking inspiration. They update them regularly and at the momen they feature these top ten hotel lists:

Romantic hotels in 10 great cities

Top ten Family Friendly hotels

Top ten All inclusive hotels

Top ten spa hotels

Top ten European hotels (popularity)

Top ten London hotels (popularity)

Cheap Hotels In Tenerife

Just looking for a holiday in Tenerife for a friend and found a specialist website Cheap Hotels in Tenerife. It's not just hotels, you can also combine the hotels with flights. This is what we wanted because then the overall holiday is protected by the ATOL bond. I think that's important in 2009, after what happened with XL last year.

In general I like to go the specialist holiday websites as they have more insight into the resorts and the destination. These days many holiday companies share the same booking technology so you get the same prices everywhere.

My favourite holiday resort in Tenerife is Los Gigantes, I just love the dramatic cliff scenery, and also we had a great whale watching excursion there. Families tend to prefer Los Cristianos - short airport transfer and something for everyone in the resort, young louts of course favour Playa de Las Americas.

Lowcostholidays website

Looking at the lowcostholidays website today, as they have had a bit of an overhaul, it's pretty fresh but the text a bit small for my liking. The company is independent from the big operators so not being tied to any particular suppliers, has a massive range of bedstock. They offer this as hotel only as well as packaged with flights. With the flight+hotel you get the protection of ATOL bonding.




There's all sorts of ways to find a holiday or hotel. Click on the map to view by destination, use a classic search box, or one I like is the matrix where you can see at a glance holidays prices by month of departure by destination and board basis. The cool thing is you can also specify your departure airport, and star rating. In terms of duration you can only choose 7 or 14 nights but that is what most people book anyway.

If you're after a specific hotel use the search box in the top right. I've tested it with good results.

Overall very impressed with the lowcostholidays website will definitely be checking it out next time I need a break.

Booking Sandos Hotels direct

To continue my little series of looking at booking direct with the lesser known hotel brands, today I am looking at Sandos Hotels. Sandos Hotels and Resorts have all inclusive hotels in Lanzarote, Benidorm and Mexico (Riviera Maya near Cancun). They are certainly good hotels, that I know from my time working in Mexico for Thomson.



On the booking form there is an option for holiday bookings including flights, but don't use this is only for Americans booking from USA to Mexico. The booking form after the initial page is actually quite nice - you get to see photos as well as a description of the rooms you are booking so there is less confusion about "what is a junior suite" for example. When I was working for a tour operator, confusion over the room type was one of the biggest factors that led to customer complaints.

The booking is initially quoted in Euros but you can convert this so you can the see the GBP equivalent. They accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Tip : There is a drop down menu for rate type of which on my test bookings there was a few, just go through them all to see the price. Best available rate isn't always the cheapest!

The Sandos Hotels website is worth a look if you are thinking of booking a holiday to one of Sandos hotel's destinations - to compare prices with a package - but don't forget that by booking with a tour operator you have more financial protection if the airline that you book flights with should cease operations.

Better than Tripadvisor

A hotel and destination review website I much prefer to the famous Tripadvisor is Holidays-Uncovered.co.uk

Why I prefer it :

• No pop-ups and pop-unders that I get when I visit Trip-advisor
• Easier to navigate than Trip-advisor
• The reviews are from British people, this is important - lets say I am looking at a hotel in Mexico - the tastes of Americans will vary from mine. They might be disappointed that there is only two types of donuts for Breakfast, while I would be gutted to find no Earl Grey tea ;)
• Trip advisor is too famous - most hotels put fake reviews on there, some are getting good at it and there are even agencies available who get paid to write realistic but good reviews!

So that's why I am reading and leaving my reviews at holidays-uncovered from now on.

Cheap holidays from Co-op Travel

Following on from my tips on how to travel cheaper, I had a look at these tips from Co-op Travel on how to get a cheap holiday this summer.

Here are their tips : I have rated them out of ten as to what I think of them.

1) Go beyond the Eurozone (5/10) - So the Euro is killing the pound at the moment, that's well known, so top holiday destinations are now Egypt, Turkey and Bulgaria. All fair enough but there are still bargains to be had to Euro destinations simply because the tour operators have either already paid for the beds already and now need to fill them or the hotels are desperate for customers and are discounting heavily. If you are not after the typical bucket and spade destinations, it is worth noting that the Swedish crown has fallen in line with the pound so that's another option.

2) Go All - Inclusive (6/10) For same reason above, high Euro, It makes sense to go all inclusive rather than pay high restaurant and drink bills. This is true up to a point but the restaurants and cafes in resorts still need your business so don't worry too much, there will be lots of special offers around. My tip is to go self catering and fill the fridge with supermarket booze. I've been in Spain very recently and that's still way cheaper than UK.

3) Be flexible with your dates (8/10) - This is the number one for me. If you are willing to fly mid-week or at less desirable departure times and can leave from a variety of UK departure points you will stand a good chance of getting a good deal on your holiday. If you have a large departure date range this will also help you hold out for an irresistible deal.

4) Get a late deal (7/10) - It's true, if you are flexible and open minded you can get a great deal by booking late. Bit like a game of chicken with the tour operators. They have to fill their planes and hotels or lose out, but just bear in mind that after the bankruptcy of XL along with the merger of Thomson & First Choice and Thomas Cook & MyTravel, there is a lot less capacity than last year. Getting a late deal only works if you can be flexible. In some cases you will be allocated your hotel on arrival.

5) Go in May (5/10) - The May half term still makes a seven night holiday very expensive in that week but the other weeks will be cheap, consider thought that it might not be that much fun to go to a half open resort at the beginning of the season. June should also remain cheap as there are no bank holidays or school holidays then (except Scotland starting late June).

Visit Co-op Travel for more deal hunting!.

Booking with Sandals direct

Sandals UK website

To continue my series of looking at booking hotels direct, this week I am looking at the Sandals website. For those who don't know Sandals is a leader in "ultra all inclusive" hotels where only couples are allowed. Sandals hotels, or I should say Sandals resorts are located in the Caribbean. They have resorts in Jamaica, St Lucia, Bahamas and Antigua.

For the very extravagant optional extras at Sandals include a private butler, Rolls Royce transfers and millionaire suites with private pool & whirlpool.

The Sandals website does run special offers including percentage discounts and free nights.
Also booking with Sandals doesn't mean you have to book hotel only. In fact you can book the whole package including scheduled flights with BA or Virgin. When you book a holiday there is no credit card charge (unusual in the UK travel industry these days!) and you can book with just a deposit of £300.

In general, when you are staying at Sandals it is a special occasion. A honeymoon or anniversary perhaps. For these types of holidays it is, of course, very important that everything goes right, which is another reason to book direct - Your special requests are more likely to be handled correctly.

Single Hotel room in Dublin for St Patricks day

Back to my day job at the Online Travel Agents today, had a tricky enquiry :


Tracking down a hotel room for 1 person in Dublin for St Patricks day 2009.

Laterooms came up trumps :

Rooms in town from £61 per room on the Monday Tuesday and the Wednesday night.
This is based on staying at the Landsdowne - close to St Stephens park. Looks really nice - classic Dublin and so the client was really pleased.

See all their Dublin hotels here

Booking with NH hoteles direct

Most people know about Hotels.com, Expedia and other big players in the online travel world so I am going to start profiling some of the lesser known websites as well as hotel companies direct as in my experience of 10 years in travel, this is where you can get the best bargains.

To kick things off I'm going to look at NH Hotels. "NH hoteles" is a Spanish company that has around 350 hotels with almost 50,000 rooms in 22 countries in Europe, Caribbean, Mexico and Africa. The NH website is available in 5 different languages (Dutch, English, Spanish, Italian and German).




Bookings on the NH hoteles website are covered by their best rate guarantee. This means if you book and find a better rate for the same hotel with the same conditions within 24hours they will match the lower price and give you a further 10% discount.

One of things you will find on the NH hoteles website is special offers that won't be available on the likes of Expedia, they have for example special offers only for people over 60 or for people 18-30.

Whether you have to pay in advance for your stay or can cancel / change your booking just depends on what rate you book. Special offers tend to be paid in advance and non refundable but standard bookings can be cancelled and don't require pre-payment.