Europe a la Carte Blog

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Armchair traveling is probably not for you if you are reading this blog, but if you do enjoy spending a quiet afternoon with a book, when your wanderlust has been satiated for the moment, you might consider making your next expedition a literary one. The Literary Traveler brings your classic and bohemian heroes to life by offering articles and listing tour providers that allow to you follow in their footsteps. From the Lost Generation in Paris to George Sand, from Gaudi in Barcelona to the mysterious English writer Agatha Christie, from Italian poets in Cinque Terre to Yeats’ Ireland, the information and photos supplied will inspire and guide you to pack up your books and get on the move. You can even purchase books (travel related fiction and nonfiction) to add to your collection. If you’d rather have someone else plot the points on your literary travels, the site lists several tour operators that specialize in these literary adventures.

Hiring a boat to cruise around Ireland is a great way to see the country at a relaxed pace. With the recent renovation of the Shannon Erne Waterway, there is access to the longest inland waterway in Europe. There are hundreds of mooring points along the rivers Shannon and Erne so there’s plenty opportunity for stops. You can fish from your boat with no licence required on the Shannon. There’s also the option to play golf as 20 golf courses are within easy reach of the waterways.

River Shannon by IrishFireside

Carrick Craft offer a choice of well equipped, comfortable boats from 2 - 8 berth all with onboard cooking facilities, shower and toilet. The have three pick up locations Carrick-on-Shannon, Banagher and Tully Bay. It’s possible to do one way trips, It’s fairly easy to pick up how to operate your boat and you’ll receive instruction and an onboard demonstration before taking to the helm.

I had a quick look at prices and found a 2+2 berth boat for 756 euros for a one week hire from Saturday 23 August with a start and finish at Banagher. There is a separate charge for fuel which is estimated at 100 - 150 euros for a one week hire. There are other offers such as 10 day hire for the price of 7 in April and October, child discounts and 2nd week discounts.

If you’re thinking of a holiday in the UK, why not try a boating holiday? It’s generally the Norfolk broads which spring to find for this type of holiday but Hoseasons have plenty of other options such as the Union or Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotand, the Llangollen Canal in Wales, the Yorkshire Waterdays and the Oxford Canals.

The Avon Viaduct, Union Canal, near Linlithgow, Scotland

Boats can sleep from 2 - 12 passengers and have all creature comforts such as flushing toilets and showers. You receive expert tuition before you take the helm and there are on board manuals to consult.

I now a expert on the Worldreviewer website. I read that Worldreviewer was tipped to one of the travel websites to watch in 2008 and were looking for travel experts with detailed knowledge in specific areas so I thought I’d have a closer look at the site. It’s aimed at the “lifestyle” or “experience” traveller and I thought that I could offer some expert insight into getting off the beaten track in Europe.

The site aims to be “the ultimate travel planning tool”, assisting you in making the best holiday choice and giving you the opportunity to help others find their ideal holiday based on collective knowledge. You can search by type of experience for which you are looking and/or location. You can rate and comment on the experiences and attractions, upload images and add your own reviews.

If you want to become an expert you need to demonstrate your specialist knowledge by submitting 5 - 10 experiences to the editor.

This post was featured on the Travel Blogs Carnival of 27 January 2007.

I know from experience that finding the right family holiday can be hard.  The Adventure Company have a great range of holidays for active families including  their new range of Teenage Adventures. There are many adventure tours from which to choose such as Slovenian Winter Adventures in the Tatras mountains, Walking with Mules in Switzerland, watersports in Croatia, walking in northern Cyprus, and wilderness exploration in Finland.

Disneyland Paris is the 4th most visited theme park in the world with over 10 million visitors a year. Not bad for a a theme park that got off to a pretty shaky start on the verge of bankruptcy in 1994 before a change a name from Euro Disney to Disneyland Paris and a debt restructure heralded better times.

SpaFinder, named best website for spa travel by Forbes.com and US Today, have been looking into their crystal ball to predict the spa trends for 2008. More travellers are looking for “healthy holidays”, where they can combine spa treatment with activities such as yoga or walking. There’s a move towards more High Street locations of big spa brands affording easy accessibility. Spas are also encouraging more men by offering additional services such as gymns, barber shops and sports rooms. Spa gift vouchers are very popular, perceived as enabling guilt free spa going, as may of us feel frivolous paying for our own spa treatments.

I had to laugh at the growing demand for express treatments which appears to contradict the whole point of spa treatments as being relaxing. These “pit stop” treatments can take as little as 10 minutes with no need (or time) to change clothes or shower.

I think it all goes to show that we all have more money to indulge ourselves and a wide choice of leisure activities vying for our disposable income. It’s down to personal choice. I’d rather spend my money on travelling in Europe than spa treatments. I’m lucky that I live in a beautiful, unpolluted location with easy access to the beach and countryside and find a country walk invigorating and relaxing.

I was intrigued by Isango as one of the co-founders and CEO, Aseem Sadana, did a great presentation at the World Travel Market in London, last month, about Web 2.0 and social networking, yet he spoke very little about his own site.

Isango is the Zulu for gateway and their strapline is “Activities. Tours. Getaways.” Isango aims to allow you to browse, select and book leisure and tour experiences all over the world, from the comfort of you own computer before you leave home. They say they can give the information to make informed decisions in your own language, saving you money and giving you more free time during your trip if you plan and book your activities in advance.

Now I’m sure that’s merit in all these advantages but it depends on how structured you wish you trip to be, do you really want to have a series of timetabled experiences? I suppose it partly depends on the type of trip you’re undertaking, the time you have in your destination(s) and the your personal preferences for an pre organised trip or a more laissez faire approach.

There’s also a degree of flexibility as you can cancel bookings for activities which last for one day up to 7 days in advance with no charge. For tours lasting more than one day you’ve to cancel 30 days prior to departure to avoid cancellation fees.

I was impressed by Isango’s price guarantee where they will refund double the difference if you find the same activity or tour for a lower price anywhere else, whether that be online, off line of in destination. Most price guarantees have all sort of caveats rendering them virtually useless.

I read some pretty favourable reviews of Isango on Viewpoints.com but wanted to look for myself to see what they have on offer in my home country of Scotland. It was all pretty standard fare, hop off and on bus tickets in the main cities, day trips to St Andrews, Rosslyn Chapel and short breaks to the Highlands and Islands. However if you’re only in Scotland for a couple of days it might be your best option to have everything organised in advance.

I did have a quick look at their “out of the ordinary trips” and there were trips to lavender fields in Provence and a half day subcat excursion off the coast in Fuerteventura in the Canaries. Still not exactly wildly original.

The website is very user friendly and you can carry out searches by destination, date, keyword and type of activity. The search results appear quickly. There is a UK landline phone number prominently displayed if you wish to talk to a member of staff.

If you like to pre-plan your activities the Isango site is a useful resource to visit with the reassurance of the price guarantee.

Visit Scotland’s campaign portraying Scotland as a Winter Sports mecca has been criticised as misleading potential visitors. There’s hardly been any decent snow cover in the north of Scotland for years. I know when our son attempted to go snowboarding a couple of years ago it was all slushy hardly the “Artic wonderlands” mentioned on the Visit Scotland website.

Skiing in Scotland, it’s so CR@P you would not believe it” by moron noodle

When I did a Flickr search for “skiing Scotland” the first photo to come up was the one above with the text “Glenshee in Scotland, imagine skiing in cold sleet and howling winds = skiing in Scotland”.

Update

Our son had another attempt in 2008 and after a very early start and a 2 hour coach trip arrived in Aviemore to discover that the snow had melted overnight.

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]