Europe a la Carte Blog

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View overlooking Petra village Lesbos

Not all locals are negative about the Lesbian issue as it does bring more gay tourists to the island. I think it was much ado about nothing and maybe a cunning ploy by the local tourist board to increase the profile of Lesbos?

Greece has a new tourism minister, Aris Spiliotopoulos, who’d like to develop some less well known destinations in Greece. I think he must have been reading Europe a la Carte and decided to follow my lead. Top of his to do list is to market Thessaloniki in northern Greece as a hip city break destination. At present the majority of passengers flying into Thessaloniki airport are heading for the three pronged Halkidiki peninsula. Spiliotopoulos describes Thessaloniki as a “combination of historic monuments and a vibrant, pulsating, youthful city”. I visited Thessaloniki almost 30 years ago so can’t really comment on what the city is like now but I’ve heard that there is ongoing development work to make the seafront more attractive.

White Tower Thessaloniki by Zopidis Lefteris

Find the best hotel deal for your stay in Thessaloniki with HotelsCombined price comparison facility below.

Holidays in Europe specialise in bargain holidays to Europe with savings of up to 40% on High Street prices. Whether you are looking for a beach holiday or a city break they offer a value for money option backed up by their Price Match, where they will refund the difference, if you find the same holiday offered by a UK website on the day you make the purchase.

You can search for holidays, flights or hotels. I found the search facility easy to use and the results came up fairly quickly. If you have any queries you can fill out a contact box asking to be contacted by telephone within a specific time slot. You can also fill out an online form specifying your requirements and they’ll get back to you with suggestions.

I liked all the additional information available on the the website. When I carried out a search for a holiday, the weather for that week last year in my chosen destination came up on the screen. Several destinations have guides giving you general facts, tips and ideas for things to see. There’s also a map and weather data. There’s information such as directions and terminal layout for all UK airports.

However I would have liked to see guides for all destinations on the site. I looked at holidays in the Greek island of Kos but there wasn’t a destination guide for Kos. This is a pity as Kos is an interesting small island. Not only does it offer beautiful beaches there’s a lot of history and culture. Kos was the home of Asclepius, the god of healing. Socrates is believed to have taught students under the shade of the still present oldest tree in Europe. The island has been occupied by Venetians and Turks and the Knights of St John built the fortress at the harbour, When I clicked on the various towns very little information about that specific resort came up. Some photos or virtual tours on would be a useful addition, allowing you to see the resort for yourself.

Staircase in Kos Castle by Ilkhamid

I had a look at some of the featured hotels in Kos. There was a general description of the location, rooms and facilities. There were 3 user reviews per hotel and an overall guest star rating. Reviews can only be made by guests who have booked through the site and stayed at that accommodation. I would have preferred to see more reviews per hotel. I read reviews of 4 hotels, 12 reviews in total and only one review had any trace of negative comments.

I believe that the more information available about destinations the better. Some visitors will only want to search for the cheapest holiday possible and are not interested in reading up about a destination. However if a potential customer is looking for more information they will probably start searching other sites to find this and may end up making the booking on one of these other sites. If potential customers are unsure if they can trust the limited user reviews they are likely to search for other reviews.

Overall I thought that the Holidays in Europe website was user friendly and offered a good choice of low cost holidays but I’d like to see more detailed destination guides, more photos and more user reviews.

This is a sponsored post arranged through ReviewMe.

I’ve started a swicki, an intelligent search engine, for cultural and activity holidays in Europe. If you’re thinking of a themed holiday in Europe, whether it be walking, cycling, painting, horseriding, language, water sports, tennis or cooking, try searching in the swicki. If you find any great companies you add them to the swicki and vote for your favourite site. Help build a great resource.

check out the European Cultural & Activity Tours swicki at eurekster.com

[tags]Swicki, Europe themed vacations[/tags]

Charter flights from Stansted to Preveza will run from July 9 to September 2007. I visited the Preveza area, in the north western mainland of Greece, in May 2003. I thought it was a really beautiful area. I did visit Leftka but I spend more time exploring the mainland. I liked the Acheron Gorge with the green Acheron River at its base, near the village of Glyki.

The modern city of Preveza is close to the site of the ancient city of Nicopolis, built by Augustus to commemorate his naval victory over Anthony and Cleoparta. When I visited the site was being renovated.

The problem with promoting the Preveza region is that it is virtually the same price to book flight only as a self catering holiday. This still seems to be the case. If you do go the area I would recommend that you hire a car for a few days and see more of the area. Have you visited this region of Greece? Did you venture far from your resort?

Surprising, yet true, according the research by Cambridge University based on data from the annual European Social Survey. Greece and Portugal also languished near the bottom of the happiness league. Top were the Danes, followed by Finns and the Irish.

Photo by Antikris
Just goes to show that it could be a fallacy to think you’d be happier if you lived in a sunnier, hotter climate? Are you happy with your country of residence. I like living in the UK. that’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement.

I came across this site which has links to all the Greek ferries. A great resource is you are thinking of island hopping in Greece. When I travelled around the islands in the 1978 it was really difficult to get information about the ferry timetables. You’d ask at the tourist office and then the ferry ticket office and be given completely different information.  I’d recommend if you are travelling independently that you catch the ferry to the location of your departure airport at least one day before your flight departs just to ensure you make that plane.

Photo by Bryce Edwards

Have you used the inter island ferries recently? Was it straightforward to obtain accurate information?

A Roman coin portrays Anthony and Cleopatra as no great beauties. Cleopatra has a shallow forehead, pointed chin and a sharp nose while Anthony has bulging eyes, a hook nose and a thick neck. I did read a bit about Anthony and Cleopatra when I was doing research for my Guide to Ancient Nicopolis. Nicopolis was built to commemorate the victory of Octavian against Anthony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in western Greece. Cleopatra had an affair with Julius Caesar and bore him a son. However Julius Caesar had no legitmate heir, so named his newphew Octavian as his heir. However Anthony, as a celebrated general weilded considerable power and influence and Octavian had to power share with Anthony. Anthony married Octavian’s sister while conducting an affair with Cleopatra! I am not even sure it was a great love affair between Anthony and Cleopatra but it was certainly a good strategic alliance between Rome and Egypt

I was fascinated by a piece on Channel 4 TV news earlier this week about the Odysseus Unbound project.  A team of geologists, classicists and archaeologists have been testing the hypothsis that Paliki in western Kefalonia is in fact the Itaca descrived in Homer’s Odyssey.  They believe that geological changes to the island caused by rockfalls and landslides in this earthquake zone have radically changed the landscape.

It is often possible to find our more about history when you are travelling. I visited the Preveza area in north western mainland of Greece and discovered that Preveza is close to the ancient city of Nicopolis, built to commemorate Augusts victory against Anthony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.