Value winter holiday.

Archergirl

annabanana82 said:

We went to Malta one April, it was their worst weather in years. A friend we went with her Grandmother lives in Malta and she saw snow for the first time that winter. 

Hopefully the weather is kinder to you than us. 

Mdina is incredible though, and strongly recommend visiting both in the day and evening. I can't believe how many people I've spoken to since and didn't visit

Mdina 'The Silent City' is no longer silent as they now allow cars in. We were very disappointed in Malta, not having been in about 25 yrs, it has really been spoilt by 'Partially funded by EU' building works all over the place, but if you've never been you should enjoy it 

J_B

Archergirl said:

 We were very disappointed in Malta, not having been in about 25 yrs, it has really been spoilt by 'Partially funded by EU' building works all over the place, but if you've never been you should enjoy it 

You should visit Paphos in Cyprus - been like that for ages!

Nebulous2

CKhalvashi said:

Doshwaster said:

Nebulous2 said:

tightauldgit said:

Nebulous2 said:

tightauldgit said:

If you're looking for value for money then going for an AI package probably isn't the way to do it. Even 7 nights for £1300 seems stupidly expensive to me but it all depends on exactly what you want. November isn't peak time so there will be any number of low cost flights available for 11 nights give or take to any number of Euro locations for about £50 each way and hotels for 30/40/50 quid a night. 

I suspect all the tour operators are going to be hiking their brochure prices as high as they can to try to capture as much money as they can these days, but whether people are silly enough to pay those prices remains to be seen - I would expect a lot of discounts are going to be available if that's indicative of the kind of price hikes that are happening. 

£1300 for both of us, flying from a regional airport in Scotland, in a decent hotel. The advantage of Tenerife, over any number of Euro locations is that the weather is likely to be better. 

Anyway I wasn't asking about my choice of holiday, more the rate of holiday inflation. I'm much exercised by increasing prices and I'm cutting back elsewhere because of it. It may well be that I need to leave Tenerife to those who are willing to spend £3k for 11 nights.  

It wasn't a criticism of your choice of holiday (each to their own preferences in my book) just pointing out that there's a bit of a disconnect between looking for value for money and a package AI holiday in a specific resort. A lot of tour operators are looking to recover their COVID losses so I imagine inflated prices will be the order of the day and they will see if people are willing to pay it or not. 

Whether £3k or £2k or whatever is worth it for you is completely up to you and your own preferences. For some people I imagine £3k for 11 nights is perfectly fine in terms of value. For me it wouldn't be. But then I'm not really the kind of person that AI resorts in Tenerife are aimed at. 

As I said though if that's the kind of price inflation that is happening then I'd probably hold off to nearer the time and see what kind of offers are on - it's a non-peak period so it's unlikely places are going to fill up. I know for example I got some really good last minute deals on hotels in the Algarve in November but that was 2021 so things might have changed. There always seem to be deals kicking around for Tunisia and Egypt as well if you just want a beach holiday with warm weather in winter.

For me November would be an ideal time to go further afield and do South East Asia if you can find some reasonable flight options (which is the key as prices have soared) because costs once you're in country are pretty minimal.  

Apologies - I may have come across a bit defensive, but I should welcome all comments. 

It would never have been my choice either, but I may have lost a bit of confidence with the debacle I had during Covid, and having tried AI we were surprised at how much we liked it. 

My parents went to Tenerife regularly, and I never fancied it either, my last trip to the Canaries prior to this was Gran Canaria, air bnb, staying in a flat in the old town in the North away from all the holiday resorts, in the midst of all the restaurants and tapas bars. We really enjoyed that, but I'm not sure I would try it now. 

I love Tenerife and it's my favourite of the Canaries but I would never go AI as half the fun for me is checking out local bars and restaurants.  I have done in Turkey when it is often not much more expensive than B&B but even then I ate out most of the time as cheap AI is cheap for a reason.

The old town of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria is indeed a fun place well away from the beaches of the south coast. Very much a proper Spanish city with very few British tourists.

Agreed on the AI, we tend to spend a fair amount of time in bars/restaurants close to universities, which are generally in historic areas.

I haven't been to Tenerife (or Canarias at all) for about 20 years so can't offer specific advice on where to go though.

Just thinking for a later holiday in the year from where we've been before, I worked in Malta some years ago in November and it was still 20+ degrees in the day.

Egypt would be something else to maybe consider, although there are limited flights from parts of the UK.

@CKhalvashi just rounding this off to say, thanks very much, what a good shout this was. 

We're just back from Malta and had a great time. Mid to high 20s every day, good food, reasonable prices and a fantastic history. 

Traffic is terrible, public transport unreliable and chaotic, I pity those braving it every day for work, but as a holidaymaker we just accepted it as part of the package. 

CKhalvashi

Nebulous2 said:

CKhalvashi said:

Doshwaster said:

Nebulous2 said:

tightauldgit said:

Nebulous2 said:

tightauldgit said:

If you're looking for value for money then going for an AI package probably isn't the way to do it. Even 7 nights for £1300 seems stupidly expensive to me but it all depends on exactly what you want. November isn't peak time so there will be any number of low cost flights available for 11 nights give or take to any number of Euro locations for about £50 each way and hotels for 30/40/50 quid a night. 

I suspect all the tour operators are going to be hiking their brochure prices as high as they can to try to capture as much money as they can these days, but whether people are silly enough to pay those prices remains to be seen - I would expect a lot of discounts are going to be available if that's indicative of the kind of price hikes that are happening. 

£1300 for both of us, flying from a regional airport in Scotland, in a decent hotel. The advantage of Tenerife, over any number of Euro locations is that the weather is likely to be better. 

Anyway I wasn't asking about my choice of holiday, more the rate of holiday inflation. I'm much exercised by increasing prices and I'm cutting back elsewhere because of it. It may well be that I need to leave Tenerife to those who are willing to spend £3k for 11 nights.  

It wasn't a criticism of your choice of holiday (each to their own preferences in my book) just pointing out that there's a bit of a disconnect between looking for value for money and a package AI holiday in a specific resort. A lot of tour operators are looking to recover their COVID losses so I imagine inflated prices will be the order of the day and they will see if people are willing to pay it or not. 

Whether £3k or £2k or whatever is worth it for you is completely up to you and your own preferences. For some people I imagine £3k for 11 nights is perfectly fine in terms of value. For me it wouldn't be. But then I'm not really the kind of person that AI resorts in Tenerife are aimed at. 

As I said though if that's the kind of price inflation that is happening then I'd probably hold off to nearer the time and see what kind of offers are on - it's a non-peak period so it's unlikely places are going to fill up. I know for example I got some really good last minute deals on hotels in the Algarve in November but that was 2021 so things might have changed. There always seem to be deals kicking around for Tunisia and Egypt as well if you just want a beach holiday with warm weather in winter.

For me November would be an ideal time to go further afield and do South East Asia if you can find some reasonable flight options (which is the key as prices have soared) because costs once you're in country are pretty minimal.  

Apologies - I may have come across a bit defensive, but I should welcome all comments. 

It would never have been my choice either, but I may have lost a bit of confidence with the debacle I had during Covid, and having tried AI we were surprised at how much we liked it. 

My parents went to Tenerife regularly, and I never fancied it either, my last trip to the Canaries prior to this was Gran Canaria, air bnb, staying in a flat in the old town in the North away from all the holiday resorts, in the midst of all the restaurants and tapas bars. We really enjoyed that, but I'm not sure I would try it now. 

I love Tenerife and it's my favourite of the Canaries but I would never go AI as half the fun for me is checking out local bars and restaurants.  I have done in Turkey when it is often not much more expensive than B&B but even then I ate out most of the time as cheap AI is cheap for a reason.

The old town of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria is indeed a fun place well away from the beaches of the south coast. Very much a proper Spanish city with very few British tourists.

Agreed on the AI, we tend to spend a fair amount of time in bars/restaurants close to universities, which are generally in historic areas.

I haven't been to Tenerife (or Canarias at all) for about 20 years so can't offer specific advice on where to go though.

Just thinking for a later holiday in the year from where we've been before, I worked in Malta some years ago in November and it was still 20+ degrees in the day.

Egypt would be something else to maybe consider, although there are limited flights from parts of the UK.

@CKhalvashi just rounding this off to say, thanks very much, what a good shout this was. 

We're just back from Malta and had a great time. Mid to high 20s every day, good food, reasonable prices and a fantastic history. 

Traffic is terrible, public transport unreliable and chaotic, I pity those braving it every day for work, but as a holidaymaker we just accepted it as part of the package. 

As always you're welcome!

We have a weekend coming in Nice for an event, so hopefully it is also quite warm.

Archergirl

Nebulous2 Is the flyover just outside Valetta finished?

Nebulous2

Archergirl said:

Nebulous2 Is the flyover just outside Valetta finished?

I've no idea, I don't recall seeing one.  We didn't drive, took the bus, and half the time we were in the bus it was dark. The traffic is so bad that they are considering spending 6 billion euros on an underground / subway. Given the experience of big infrastructure projects in the UK, I'd say 6 billion won't come anywhere close. 5 years later they will be at £20 billion and counting.... 

Fascinating place though. Gozo was much less developed with cheaper street food and drinks.... 

Edited to say:- We've added up our expenditure in airports and on Malta today. Less than £1000 in 10 days. Very impressive, given we ate out at least once every day, and visited quite a few tourist attractions....