Travel News Roundup

It’s that time again for the quirky, interesting, useful (or not so) travel news!

Disney Deal
If you fancy heading off to Orlando for a trip to Disney World you can now stay twice as long for free!!  FloridaTix has extended its 14 days for the price of 7 ticket offer until the end of September 2011.  It’s was a long long time ago that I visited but I’d definitely go back and this is a great money saving deal. More info on http://www.floridatix.co.uk/14for7-ultimate-ticket.aspx

www.floridatix.co.uk

The Ultimate Relaxing Holiday
The 5* Aldemar Royal Mare hotel group, on the Greek isle of Crete, is offering visitors complimentary Yoga classes during their stay at any of their four hotels on the island.  More info on www.aldemarhotels.com

www.aldemarhotels.com

Stag Alert
Apparently Europe is still the top spot for stag party destinations.  According to stagweekendblog, popular with the rowdy crowd are Krakow, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Ibiza and Dublin.  Research by UK based Tour Company Chillisauce also claims that Amsterdam has one of the highest Fit Blond Per Capita (FBPC) indexes in the known world. Hmmm

Image from Google.com

 Summer Stinkers
According to washing detergent, Boost Stain Remover, in a survey of UK adults, 14% admitted to wearing their pants up to three times before washing them! (who are these people?!).  It seems people are sacrificing their personal hygiene in order to fit everything in their 55x40x20 cabin luggage!


French Cookery

Former Masterchef finalist, Jim Fisher, has set up his own cookery school in the beautiful Dordogne.  Having worked with the likes of Rick Stein, Tony Tobin and Alistair Little, Jim has developed a new series of cookery courses based around famous ‘Last Suppers’.  You can tackle the 10-courses of the ‘Titanics Final Banquet’, Elvis Presley’s Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich or Will and Kate’s Royal Wedding Canapes.  Sounds delicious and all set in the idyillic Dordogne.  More info here www.cookinfrance.com

www.cookinfrance.com

Hotel Review – Ramada Jarvis, Manchester Piccadilly Gardens

On my recent trip to Manchester for Bon Jovi, my friends and I stayed in the Ramada Jarvis in Piccadilly Gardens. The hotel had an onsite car park that is only £12 for 24 hours. 

We were about an hour early as check wasn't until 2pm, but we thought we see if our rooms were ready anyway.  The lady on reception was friendly and helpful and was able to check us in to one of our rooms so we headed up to the room to drop our bags off.  

The room was not as I would expect of a Ramada, given both the price we paid and the photos on the website. It was small, muggy (health & safety prevents the windows being openable) and had a distinct musty and damp smell. 

We headed back down to reception to try and change the room. The man on reception was superbly helpful. He went what I feel was above and beyond what most hotel staff/reception staff would do. He looked at all the options available, showed us a number of different rooms all with a chirpy tone in his voice and a smile on his face. It's a shame the duty manager was not of the same ilk. It seems the only decent rooms in this hotel are on the 5th floor as this is the only floor has been refurbished recently.  

So after the duty manager had vehemently denied any of the rooms had mould or damp (although upon further investigation in the room we had found this to be the source of the smell) the only option left available to us was to have one standard room on the 5th floor and pay for an upgrade to an executive room also on the 5th floor. This fee was unable to be waived because the hotel was so busy and they could have easily sold the room at full price. So this is clearly a hotel of quantity rather than quality.

The hotel was conveniently located at Piccadilly Gardens, right next to the tram and bus stop with lots of shops, bars and restaurants nearby.

Apart from being rudely awaken by housekeeping walking into the room at 9am or the very loud voiced neighbours, we had a fairly decent nights sleep (the tiredness and beers probably helped with this too). Breakfast was thankfully really good. There was a good selection of the much needed cooked items as well as fruit, cereal and pastries and juice.    

Bon Jovi Live in Manchester

What a fantastic weekend I've had. It was the weekend of our trip to Manchester to see Bon Jovi at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. 
 
Three of us (Katie, Nigel & I) took the train up to Manchester on Friday morning from Euston. It's an efficient service, only 2 hours, and fairly cheap if you book your tickets in advance. At the other end our friend Dave picked us up from Manchester Piccadilly station and we drove round to our hotel.

We were staying at the Ramada Javis and after a bit of a cafuffle (see hotel review!) we checked into our rooms and headed off out for some lunch.


With only a couple of hours before we had to head off to Old Trafford we found a nice looking restaurant opposite the hotel called the BlueParrot Bar and Grille. A bright and breezy, Liz introduced herself as our server and showed us to our table. We ordered some drinks and sat back to peruse the menu.  The food was fresh and delicious. Although I wasn't quite sure why my 'build your salad' came with dressing on it when I was asked to choose a dressing (caesar) which also came in a pot in the side?? Anyway it was very enjoyable and Liz was chatty and helpful throughout.

We then packed up our pac a mac's and headed off to the tram stop, handily right next to our hotel.
We arrived at Old Trafford Cricket Ground 15 minutes later with a hefty throng if other people.  The huge stage was set up towards the far end of the ground, so we made out way in that direction, via the bar and the portaloos.  I was quite impressed with the toilets, they were fairly decent for portaloos, although I'm not sure they stayed in this decent state for the rest if the evening. 

At the bar we stocked up on drinks so we didn't have to queue up again so quickly but at £4 a bottle it was clear we were going to need to put more money in the kitty.

Apparently Bon Jovi had done a search of their fans to find a support act. So the first act on were the winners of this - Xander and the Peace Pirates.  They are the resident band at the world famous Cavern Club and they were really good.  After a short break the official support act, Vintage Trouble, came on. Although I'd never heard of them they sounded good with catchy numbers and they went down well with the crowd.
The pac a mac's had come out at this point as the rain began to drizzle.

Shortly after the support act and at least half an hour early, out they came to Blood on Blood and You Give Love a Bad Name as the 46,000 strong crowd came alive.

I'm not a die hard Bon Jovi fan, as in I couldn't tell you the name his first pet or favourite colour, but I do like his tunes especially the oldies. I'm not very up to date on much if his new stuff so was pleased that he played a mix of old and newer ones so there were plenty for me to sing along to. The ones we didn't know so well made a good opportunity to dash to the bar/toilet.

With most of the band under a protective cover, Jon and Richie Sambora braved the rain with the crowd and jammed around the stage rocking out all the hits; It's My Life, Raise Your Hands, In These Arms, Bed of Roses, Keep the Faith and even a Bad Medicine/Shout (Lulu) medley.

A quick break, change of t-shirt and hat and they were back for the encore of Dry County, Wanted Dead or Alive and predictable, yet understandably they closed with a quality performance of Living on a Prayer, supported by 46,000 fans singing along with them. Brilliant.

Buzzing, we herded out of the ground with the rest of the audience on a high. Renditions of the Bon Jovi classics could be heard all around the crowd.

To round of the night we headed back to Piccadilly Gardens, changed into something drier and strolled round to China town for a well needed dinner in The New Emporer.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D

My work colleagues and I decided to have a little school trip out the other week to the cinema. It was after work by the way, just in case my employers are reading.

We packed up and headed off the Vue in Shepherds Bush to see the latest installment of the Pirates if the Caribbean franchise - Pirates of the Caribbean 4 – On Stranger Tides. We picked up our 3D glasses and popcorn and settled into our seats.

The 4th film sees a few new faces as well as some of the old ones, but a few of the original main characters don't appear in this one, namely Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly. Keira Knightly I didn't miss at all (its safe to say I'm not here greatest fan) and Penelope Cruz as Angelica Malon, a love interest from Jack’s past, was a welcome addition.  It was nice to see Keith Richards making another brief appearance too.

The film is about a search for the legendary Fountain of Youth and revenge.  Jack is lured aboard Blackbeard’s (Ian McShane) ship; the Queen Anne’s Revenge, by Angelica (Blackbeard’s daughter) and forced to help them navigate to the Fountain of Youth.  Jack’s rival, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), has team up with King George II under the pretence of beating the Spanish to the Fountain of Youth, but really only wants to get revenge on Blackbeard for stealing the Black Pearl and forcing him to amputate his own leg in order to escape.  Jack and Barbossa work together to deceive Blackbeard.  Blackbeard wants use the Fountains properties to evade his fated death by a one legged man (hmm who do we know with one leg?) and the Spanish want to destroy the Fountain as they believe it is evil in the eyes of God.



The Pirates franchise are all watchable swashbuckling fun, not too taxing on the brain but filled with a bit of action, a bit of adventure and of course a lot of Captain Jack Sparrow (I never really thought pirates were my type but it seems Johnny Depp makes a very attractive one!).

I think Captain Jack is my favourite Johnny Depp character. He plays it with just the right amount of humour and kookiness, without being too weird like his Willy Wonka and Mad Hatter roles or too odd like his Edward Scissorhands character. 

The film is in 3D. I like to think I'm quite up to date on my technology but I still understand why you need to buy a 3D tv if you still have to wear the glasses?? Answers on a postcard/in the comments box. Anyway back to the point, the film is in 3D which makes the visual effects even better. It helps the imagination transport you into those turquoise Caribbean waters or rolling around the ship deck amidst a tropical storm.  There wasn't as much jumping out of the screen action as I'd thought (maybe I'm just remembering the roller coaster and balloons from the Alton Towers 3D cinemas?!?) but I imagine if it was happening all the time, in every scene, it may become too much?

All in all this is an entertaining and easy to watch installment to accompany the previous 3 films. 

I'm going to give this film 4 pieces of gold out of 5.

P.s there is an extra bit after the credits, right at the very end!

Travel News Roundup

I thought I'd start this little segment to bring you all the weird, wonderful, useful and not always so useful news from the travel and leisure world. So here's my first news roundup edition:

Free drink, or Not Free Drink
Budget airlines offer some great deals but increasingly all the little things that we were once used to being included are being knocked off the main price and charged as extras.  So does it actually really work out as a great deal in the end? Food and drink are one of the things that we've come to expect to be charged for on short haul flights but what about mid or long haul flights? Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) have created a useful table so you can check before you go, or even book, what food and drink is available on which airlines. The table can be found at www.aph.com/airlinemeals

Mmmm airplane food

“Hell is other people’s children on holiday”
This is the consensus of one in three UK adults who were surveyed by Thomson Holidays.  Over-tired youngsters, noisy and unruly kids in the restaurant or room next door or being splashed by excited kids in the pool all seem to be major gripes for adults on holiday,  but it seems it’s not just other peoples kids that mar our annual breaks.  The survey found that 40% of parents admitted their own kids affected their holiday enjoyment while 4% said their holidays were ruined by their own kids!  Thomson did the research to launch ‘Couples’ their new child-free holiday experiences.  My advice – don’t buy your child a ‘joker soaker’ (water gun) for the pool - you and everyone around you will get wet! 


This photo of Hotel Orquidea is courtesy of TripAdvisor


Celeb Spotting or Best Tee Off
HotelClub have announced the winners of their 5^th Hotel awards.  With awards for hotels in London, Greater England, Scotland and Ireland here are my favourites from each area:

Best Place for Celeb Spotting – The Langham, London
Best Place for London Dry Gin – Egerton House Hotel, London
Best for “Weekend with the Girls/Guys” Getaway – The Light Boutique ApartHotel, Manchester
Best Tee Off and 19^th Hotel – Celtic Manor, Newport
Best Place to Enjoy a Guinness – Arlington Hotel O’Connell Bridge, Dublin


This photo of The Light Boutique ApartHotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Deals, Deals, Deals
Fancy a Nile Cruise visiting the Valley of the Kings, Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Luxor along the way? (I'm nodding my head) With the some of the most amazing ancient archeological monuments and sites from over 6,000 years ago, Egypt really is the world’s largest open air museum.  Discover Egypt is offering 50% off its Nile Cruise between 4^th July and October 2012 - there is more info on www.discoveregypt.co.uk

http://famouswonders.com/luxor-temple/

Travel Gadgets
Micro Luggage – a neat carry-on sized Samsonite suitcase that converts into a scooter – genius! The nippy lean-and-steer scooter can be used to get to and from work or the train station and when you’re done you can fold it all up in the 26 litre capacity sturdy suitcase and still have room for all your work or travel essentials.

The Samonite Scooter

The Hangover 2

This weekend saw the much awaited trip to see The Hangover 2! So after a couple a drinks in the beer garden, we headed off down to the Vue cinema to settle into our VIP seats and watch the ‘more shocking’ and ‘even funnier’ film (as it was billed).

After taking out a small mortgage to pay for the food (we only had a hotdog and a drink!) we were finally in.
As many of you will know The Hangover is one of my most favourite films, so when I heard they were making a second one I was initially very excited. I soon quashed the excitement and set myself low expectations for the film.  That way the film will at least meet my expectations and best case scenario it will surpass them.  Slightly pessimistic view I know but my theory has worked in the past.

Based on this I did enjoy the film.  It is basically the same format as the first except it is set in Bangkok at Stu's wedding.  Doug is safely stationed at the wedding hotel complex (rather than the roof) while Stu, Phil and Alan, who are joined once again by Mr Chow, have this time managed to lose Stu's fiancees' 16 year old brother, Teddy. Oops.

The film starts with the same 'We f****d up' call from Phil to Tracy and proceeds to rewind to show the guys waking up in a grim Bangkok hotel room. I do love the way they make them all look so rough - they have either all been out and actually got horribly drunk the night before filming or the make-up folks have done a great job!

Phil, again, seems to be the one that ends up in a hospital for some reason or another and Stu's, seemingly, secret liking for strippers goes that one step further!

Alan feels a bit put out by Teddy joining the group - I mean he isn't one of the wolfpack is he! So his plan to drug Teddy so he has to go to bed backfires somewhat.

In this film the baby has been replaced by a drug dealing monkey in a jacket, Mr Chow gets set up and arrested by the feds, they steal a monk instead of a tiger and Mike Tyson returns as a wedding gift from Alan to Stu.



As far as sequels go I did enjoy this one (whether its because my expectations were low I'm not sure) but although not as standout and funny as the first, the format was consistent, they still got up to some 'crazy sh*t' and there were some funny one liners and little touches. Some of my favs:

(In Alan's impromptu post wedding speech) "Nobody knows Stu like me ....this is not his first wedding, he married a whore in Vegas..."

(Who's having the worst day??)
Mr Chow to Phil: "Oh, you are having a bad day. Did you die?”

Stu: You see, I have a demon in me!
Alan: Stu, you mean semen.
Stu: No, I meant demon.
Alan: But you also had semen, remember.

This film will still make you wince, cringe and laugh out loud so I'm going to give it a 3 1/2 drug laced marshmallows out of 5.

The wolfpack is back.....almost

Short Film Competition – Kirin First Cut

I’ve been sent some info that might be of interest to all you budding film makers. It’s organised by Japanese beer brand – Kirin Ichiban. Here’s the blurb……

Organisers are looking for budding short film makers from students, aspiring amateurs through to professionals, to submit their finest work, whether created on 35mm film or on a mobile phone edited using the latest app. The only criteria is that short films entered should be based around the concept of ‘First Press’. Short film entries must be original work and can be anything from 1 minute to 10 minutes in length and use one of the following production techniques: live action, animation, narrative/experimental or documentary.

The four shortlisted films will also be screened at the Kirin Ichiban Pop Up restaurant in East London in August 2011.

The overall winner will then be chosen from a shortlist by public vote and receive £3000 cash and the career boosting prize of having their film shown at the London Short Film Festival.

2nd place will receive £1000 cash, 3rd place will receive £500 cash and the final runner up will win a year’s supply of Kirin Ichiban beer.

Kirin First Cut on Twitter

Kirin First Cut on Facebook

To find out more about Kirin’s history and to get your creative juices flowing, visit www.kirinfirstcut.co.uk for more details of how to submit your film and the full terms and conditions. Deadline for entries 30th June 2011.

The spokesperson for Kirin, Paul Brazier, says:

“Japan’s Prime Brew, Kirin Ichiban is not your average beer; it’s made by the unique "Ichiban Shibori Process" which literally translated means ‘First Press’, producing the purest beer. First Press can be interpreted in many different ways, be it literal or metaphorical, from a nervous first kiss of lips pressing together or the first press of a button that changes everything, to the most outlandish interpretation your creativity can conceive. The only limit is imagination, so we’re really looking forward to seeing some of the entries”.

And some more news hot off the press….

The four short-listed films will then be screened at Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, held 20-29 July and screened at the Curzon Mezzanine lounge. These film makers will also be invited to mingle with industry experts at the closing night party at Studio Valbonne on the 28th July.

Kirin and the 55th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express celebrate new sponsorship deal with “First Cut” initiative

This year the competition will be an integral part of a new sponsorship with the BFI London Film Festival in which Kirin become the official beer for the duration of the festival - October 12-27 2011

Sounds exciting so get your directors chair out and start filming!

Algarve Adventure

Sorry for the absence in posts. I’m back from latest trip to the beautiful Portuguese Algarve though.  And I’ve just about got over my holidays blues – it doesn’t matter where I’ve been or for how long I always come back dreaming of what my life would be like in sunnier climes and with a relaxed holiday attitude.  I eventually come round to the fact that unless I win the lottery it’s most likely that I will still need to work whether I’m at home or abroad which means that I wouldn’t be living the holiday dream everyday anyway.

So back to Blightly - at least the weather has picked up again now which all goes into lifting the spirits of the nation!

Having been to the Algarve a few times now I can confirm that I really like it.  Previously I’d visited Villamoura, dubbed the millionaires marina, which is a beautiful place.  It has golden beaches (donned with bronzed lifeguards), delicious restaurants and super shiny yachts filling the marina.  If only I could get on one (mentally plotting).

This isn't quite what I had in mind when I said find me a nice boat

This time my friend Alice, her two young boys and I went to Olhos D’Agua, which is just outside Albufeira.  We stayed in the Clube Humbria hotel on an all inclusive basis.  We’d got a fairly cheap deal on it so we were happy to still go out for a few meals in the evening even though we were all inclusive.
As I mentioned in my previous post we arrived in the glorious sunshine after an early start.  We had a hotel transfer. I’m not a fan of these. I always seem to be at the last hotel dropped off and the first one picked up again which means being stuck on the coach for an eternity.  True to form we were the last hotel to be dropped off.

Waiting for the transfer coach!

The verdict on the kids club was that it was ‘really exciting’ and ‘fun’.  So we can assume they enjoyed it, so much so that each day the boys proceeded to ask from about 11.30am onwards ‘is it time for kids club yet?’ or ‘how long til kids club?’  

Ping Pong anyone?

This gave Alice and I a good hour and half each day to make the most of the sunshine and all inclusive beers.
On Sunday we met up with our friend Claire (who lives in Portugal) who picked us up and took us off to Zoo Marine.  We were heading for Aqua Show but soon discovered that it wasn’t open for the season yet.

Zoo Marine is a sort of animal theme park.  There are a couple of pools to swim in, a big water slide, lots of kids rides like the mini Buffalo, big wheel (its high up there), and carousel etc.  There are a number of animal enclosures/habitats – birds, sealions, turtles and crocodiles as well as various shows.

Hold on tight

We saw the dolphin show, which was a combination of dolphins and synchronized swimmers.  The synchronized swimmers were good if not a little random in some of their out of the water dance moves.  While I’m not sure I totally agree with keeping dolphins in captivity and training them they are very clever and impressive animals.  Hard to take photos of though.

Hands up if you felt silly shaking your booty on the side of a dolphin pool?

It only took 15 pictures to get one with an actual dophin in

We visited the aquarium show but after being rushed in and rushing round because we thought we were going to miss the show it seems there was no actual ‘show’. Or maybe the ‘show’ was the exhibits we rushed passed? Who knows? We saw Nemo in there anyway.

The other show we saw was the 4D show.  An educational film about global warming and not destroying rainforests etc with all the 4D aspects thrown in i.e. filmed in 3D, water splashed at us and wind blown at us.

The rest of the holiday was fairly relaxing and consisted of a fair bit of laying by the pool, a visit to the beach and a trip to Albufeira to ride the little train between the old town and the strip.

Close but not quite right as the second 'e' is missing - as noted by the 6 year old

The hotel was fairly decent.  Not sure about the evening entertainment and the main issue I had was how uncomfortable the sunbeds were and how hard the beds in the room were! The food was as you would expect.  Breakfast was nice, the pool snack bar had some good snacks however there was fairly limited choice for lunch and dinner in the main dining room.  We found a couple of really nice restaurants just near the hotel though.  One was a delicious pizza place with very friendly waiters and the other was a grill restaurant - which did a tasty steak. 

We also had a really nice meal in Villamoura overlooking the marina.  Note for future reference – don’t let children wearing slip on flip flops sit anywhere near water.  They are perfectly safe, their flip flops are not so! 

The gang - minus one flip flop

Now that's the sort of boat I was after!

50 sleeps until the next trip (approx)!