...for less than £650, without it being a dive.
Wow, I can't believe how expensive holidays are these days! DC and I are really hoping to go away this year, I had my summer hols last year with J but he didn't get a chance to go away. So before we start making plans, we want to get away for a week in the sun for a week of relaxation.
We've always booked last minute. In 2010 we went to Benalmadena, and in 2011 we jetted off to Corfu. Both of them cost around £600 for everything - flights, holiday, and baggage, going self catering. But nowadays it looks like you're getting a cheap holiday... then on the final booking page they add on £140 for suitcases! I don't even think £650 is that cheap, to me it's a lot of money (read: handbags) but I just can't seem to find anywhere.
Well, there are a million zillion "star hotels" courtesy of On The Beach. They really do sell it to you. But then you look at the TripAdvisor reviews and see 'rats' 'burglary' 'rude staff' 'stained mattresses' and more. I don't mind the odd cockroach (my idea of 'not minding' cockroaches is shrieking for five minutes whilst chasing it around the apartment with a tumbler glass for the maids to get rid of later) but rats? Really?
Summer holidays are tricky because late deals used to be really reasonable, but now you don't know whether the price will go down or rocket as the jetting off date gets closer. It doesn't help that as DC's a teacher we can only go away in the half terms or summer holidays, which drives up the price. But Leicester breaks up for the summer hols a week earlier than most of the country, so if we fly on 13 July we can get a bit of a better deal.
At the moment I've found one set of good reviews for a hotel in Los Cristianos, and I know the area is nice because I've been to Playas De Las Americas a few times and the area is amazing. The only bad thing is that the hotel is at the top of a steep hill, but 'Cardiac Hill' in Benalmadena didn't hurt us too much so I think we'll be all right with that - at least it'll burn off some of the yum food and cheap alcohol at the end of the night!
It's a circle - you're stressed so you want to book a holiday, you search for package deals and get even more stressed and then are more in need of a holiday... and so on.
In Corfu we had a really terrible hotel (more like a ground floor shack with a broken door) but we didn't let it bother us, as I think holidays are definitely what you make them.
Hopefully in five weeks I'll be flying off to somewhere hot, sunny and relaxing. But for the minute it is doing.my.head.in. trying to find the perfect location. Get me away!
Dans x
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