The Foreign Office has issued a report about the behaviour of a small minority of British tourists who can cause big problems, as this Daily Mail report shows:

A new FCO report on the behaviour of Britons on holiday has revealed that thousands of tourists were arrested or forced to seek hospital treatment last year, often because they had consumed too much alcohol.

The report, which looked at incidents involving British tourists between April 2009 and March 2010, found that around six thousands travellers lost their lives while abroad. Drink, drugs and road traffic accidents were among the primary reasons for the deaths.

Spain, the US and France were the countries where British visitors needed the most consular assistance.

The report found that ‘most arrests involving British people in Spain are for drunk or drink-related offences’. The highest proportion of arrests for drug offences was in Thailand, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates.

The research also highlights the need for adequate travel insurance with the FCO publishing examples of incidents involving travellers who faced huge bills after hitting problems while abroad without the correct cover.

One man on a skiing holiday was forced to pay a 4,500-euro bill for mountain rescue, transport and medical costs after he fell and broke his collarbone while on a ski holiday because he didn’t have comprehensive travel insurance.

Drunken behaviour is also cited as a big problem with overseas authorities often making an example of those who act inappropriately. A Briton who urinated on one of Latvia’s most revered monuments was sentenced to five days in custody.

In the sunshine resort of Malia on Crete, this week, a UK reporter found himself on the receiving end of drunken violence after he was attacked by a Greek bar owner for trying to film a young British woman who was ‘comatose’ with drink.

Richard Gaisford, a journalist for GMTV, was punched in the face and had his microphone stolen while filming a piece on the FCO report. He said: ‘I’ve just been smashed in the face, probably by one of the guys here who are very keen to protect the image of this place. And that image is not good.’

Young Britons flock to the Greek resort for the party atmosphere. Doctors at Malia’s medical centre, where drunk tourists often find themselves, defended the area’s boozy reputation: ‘The problem here is that the people drink alcohol but it’s less this year than last. This year, we’ve [also] not had so many people with drugs.’

Among other warnings, the FCO advises travellers to be aware of stricter laws abroad, to ensure travel insurance is comprehensive and to research which vaccinations are needed for travel to certain countries. Visit http://www.fco.gov.uk/travel for advice, and to read the original article at the Daily Mail click here

For Lanzarote flights visit yourlanzarote.net

Viva Espana! Struggling Spain is bouncing back with increased bookings, according to a report in the Daily Mirror.

After reports that Brits were still shunning the Costas to save money, online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com this week revealed that destinations in Spain and the Canary Islands are among its biggest-growing breaks year on year.

Gran Canaria has seen the largest boost, with bookings up 479%. Fuerteventura has also seen many more visitors in 2010, bookings were up 340% compared with July 2009.

The other Canary Islands have also seen visitor numbers rise – Lanzarote is up 132% and Tenerife by 92%. Mainland Spain has also attracted more visitors than in 2009, with bookings to the coastal region of Costa Blanca up by 160% this year.

Spain has historically been popular with UK holidaymakers but bookings were hit last year due to the strong euro.

Lastminute.com’s Mark Bower says: “We’re thrilled to see Spain and the Canary Islands back in our best sellers.”

A good article appeared in The Guardian recently about new tactics being employed by the timeshare industry - the comments from readers are worth reading as well - click here to see them.

British consumers about to set off on their summer holidays are being warned to be on their guard against a potential new problem in the timeshare market: the hard-selling of “fractional ownership” of resorts.

The UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC), which advises consumers who have a dispute with a trader based in another European country, this week issued the warning and said it wants to hear from anyone caught up in this potential scam.

The consumer group is concerned that timeshare salesmen – a long-time nightmare for UK holidaymakers abroad, particularly in Spain – have switched tactics and are now trying to entice the unwary into investing in holiday properties and resorts, with the promise that they will own a fraction of its overall value.

Their actions, it says, have been partly prompted by new European legislation that gives those signing up to timeshare schemes a cooling-off period of 14 days.

In the past, holidaymakers have been ground down into signing up to expensive timeshares and then sometimes found it impossible to get out of the deal when they realise what they had been sold.

Jed Mayatt, the UK ECC’s manager, says the hard sell of fractional ownership is an emerging issue for holidaymakers. “This is becoming a real difficulty in some resorts, with timeshare owners being told that if they buy more weeks, their investment can be converted to fractional ownership.

“The consumer is persuaded to buy more weeks, completes the paperwork, but gets nothing to show for it in terms of the deeds, etc. They have simply found themselves signed up to further weeks’ timeshare ownership.”

He is appealing to Britons to contact the UK ECC with their experiences. “Once consumers have outlined the details of their problem, we will know whether we can help , and how big the problem has become,” he says. In recent years, fractional ownership has been billed as the cheaper, hassle-free way to buy a holiday home.

It has been popular in the US and in Europe, where it has often been used to buy into ski chalets. Now it is being marketed to consumers as a way of buying into upmarket resorts.

Under a fractional ownership scheme, you buy a share in a property (often through a company), entitling you to spend several weeks there each year. Different companies sell stakes of various sizes, but most deal in one-quarter or one-fifth shares.

You are allocated chunks of time during which the property is at your disposal, to use or rent out.

Mayatt says that while there are plenty of legitimate schemes of this type, some are nothing more than a new way to sell extra timeshare. It is a similar story for holiday clubs, he warns. “The dodgy ones trade on the reputation of the best operators – it’s impossible for those [people] on holiday being given the hard sell to differentiate,” says Mayatt.

“Under the terms of the new timeshare directive, consumers effectively have a 14-day cooling-off period. We are monitoring this aspect of fractional ownership over the coming months – in particular the summer – and are putting a call out to UK consumers to let us know if they have experienced this kind of trouble, and we will do our best to help them.”

Guardian Money was recently contacted by a couple who feel they were mis-sold fractional ownership.

The couple, who declined to be named because they are about to go into arbitration with the resort concerned, paid £20,500 for an extra week’s timeshare in Tenerife on the basis that this would convert their investment from timeshare into fractional ownership, meaning they would own a proportion of the resort. The salesman told them that it would consequently be worth more and be easier to sell on – but no paperwork has been supplied, and it now looks as though they have simply been sold a further week’s holiday access at the resort. “We were told we were upgrading our investment to fractional ownership, but it wasn’t true. We’ve been duped and we are desperate to get our money back,” says the woman concerned.

Piers Brown, who runs the website and exhibition business fractionallife.com says developers in Europe have increasingly turned to fractional sales as a way of shifting unsold developments and properties.

“With the overseas property market badly hit by the economic downturn, both developers and owners have increasingly been looking at fractional ownership. For consumers it makes sense because they no longer face all the costs of running a holiday home, at a time when prices are very uncertain.

“It’s imperative to make sure that you are being sold a ‘deeded interest’ in the property – your lawyers need to be checking this very carefully,” advises Brown.

He points to the involvement of a number of big-name companies in the sector – the De Vere group is marketing fractional ownership of a number of luxury resorts in the UK – as evidence that this market is does have trustworthy firms.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in buying into one of these schemes, you need to look closely at the annual upkeep charges. As many timeshare customers have found, it may well be cheaper simply to book a conventional holiday each year.

For a map of Tenerife visit yourtenerife.net

Majorca

Majorca Blog

Often family holidays can centre around the beach, and finding a good one near to your hotel or villa is an important part of having a good time - and getting it wrong can mean the whole trip is a bad experience.

So where are the good beaches in destinations ideal for a family holiday?

For Majorca, the most popular European vacation island, the answer is Playa de Muro, according to a recent leading quality British newspaper’s travel section.

Playa de Muro is located in the north of the island when looking at a map of Majorca, and the closest holiday resort is Alcudia, popular with both German and British tourists.

The travel section reports that the goldensands are ‘never ending’ and that the beach has earned Blue Flag status, with a number of good hotels located along the beach, offering a good choice for those wanting to be near a beach and searching the internet for Majorca hotels
.
They advise that you can wade out quite a long way in the clear water before getting out of your depth, so this is a great option if you have small children. You can hire a pedalo, try all sorts of watersports or take a boat trip.

It’s often a bit breezy, so good for kiting too. If you need a bit of peace and quiet while enjoying the great weather in Majorca. Paths lead to the Albufera nature reserve, which is the largest wetland area on the island.

There is no shortage of bars and restaurants according to the report, whether you want paella, patatas bravas or pizza. If you walk along far enough, there are quieter parts of the beach with picnic areas in the shade of the trees by the dunes.

And for those about to go on their holidays in Majorca they even give some advice about how to find Playa de Muro:

From Alcudia, drive along the bay, past the S’Albufera Nature Park. There are lots of free places to park. You can also get there by bus.

Internet versions of national newspapers are a rich source of good information for tourists to read about destinations - The Daily Telegraph in the UK being one example of quality journalism. In Europe and North America travel journalists write about diverse but related travel topics, and subscribing to them is money well spent, but many are still freely available. Social media also has independent reviews, such as Yahoo Buzz.

More information about the islands and photographs of Playa de Muro are available at yourmajorca.net

The BBC have been running an interesting feature about the spending cuts in Spain and how it affects people - with this from Tenerife:

I have lived in Tenerife for eight years now and have never seen it so bad.

Where I work is just barely staying afloat, but every day it gets worse.

I work in the construction industry - I run a machinery hire company. We used get 30 or more clients a day. Now, if we are lucky, we get three a week.

We can’t keep going at this rate. I read in the local paper that unemployment here is higher than the national average which is over 20% now. I see it everyday, in front of the dole offices and people begging outside supermarkets and people trying to sell us their old machines.

With less people working I fail to see how pushing up taxes is going to make a dent in the budget deficit. It will affect the working population.

reezing public sector recruitment again affects the unemployment figures. And as for reducing spending - it’s a joke. There are so many projects here in Tenerife that have been started but never finished. Where did that funding from Madrid and the European handouts go to?

The first thing they should do is stop the corruption. It’s worse than the UK and the expenses scandals. Tenerife has become expensive with nothing to show for it. If mainland Spain is in the same situation then god help us.

I don’t now what the answer is but one thing is for sure is that the normal person will have to take the brunt of it for mistakes made by banks and politicians. Fair? I think not.

To read other comments visit the BBC site by clicking here

For the latest Tenerife weather visit yourtenerife.net

2 million Britons are heading abroad for the Easter holidays - with Tenerife one of the top destinations, according to internet site Opodo who say:

More than 2m British holidaymakers are set to take advantage of the Easter break by embarking on a trip between 1 and 6 April, according to Abta - The Travel Association.

The organisation revealed that Spain remains the ‘outright favourite’ for Britons, with Tenerife and other destinations in the Canary Islands proving particularly popular.

Looking further afield, travellers have showed strong interest in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, as well as the tropical hotspots of Florida and the Caribbean.

Abta pointed out that Easter is also a ‘peak time’ for city breaks, with Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Milan and New York leading the field in this sector.

Those planning to stay in the UK have shown strong interest in London, Edinburgh and Manchester, as well as rural areas such as Cornwall, East Anglia and northern England.

John McEwan, chairman of the industry association, said: ‘Easter is the traditional curtain raiser to the summer and I am delighted to see that hundreds of thousands of our customers are taking the opportunity to take a well-earned break both here in the UK and overseas.’

For more holidays in Tenerife information visit yourtenerife.net - including cheap Tenerife flights

A review of the wildlife park in the north of the island appeared recently in the UK press:

I first visited Tenerife way before the island was associated with Lineker’s bar, when timeshares were rife and karaoke a new experience. So when I was invited to check out a wildlife park in the relatively chilled north, I was more than happy to go back and see if an authentic experience is still possible at what is often dismissed as just a sun and sand destination.

Loro Parque in the popular Puerto de la Cruz (a town that still has nothing on touristy Playa des Americas) opened in 1972 with just a small collection of parrots. Today it is a zoo, aquarium, theme park and education facility, rivalling some of the best Florida has to offer. Set in 135,000sqm it is also piped as one of the most exciting wildlife sites in Europe.

However, I am here to see their newest addition, a free-flight aviary that is home to an extremely noisy collection of cockatoos, kookaburras, pheasants, thrushes, fruit doves and parrots – very impressive considering its original and rather humble gathering of feathered species back in the 1970s. The 27m-high structure is set in lush tropical vegetation and the network of treetop walks and hanging bridges allows me to encounter some of the 120 tropical birds in their natural habitat. I’m no bird enthusiast but I do appreciate the Spix’s macaw. Originally from Brazil, they have been extinct in the wild since 2000 and are now the rarest birds in the world. A collaboration with Brazil’s wildlife agency has seen the last wild male protected, with funds of £450,000 donated to help preserve the species.

Although I enjoy hanging out with my new squawking feathered friends, they do hit the same volume levels as the Paris Opera House (the park actually measured it) so it was a relief to spend time with the rare white – and reasonably quiet – Bengal tiger. The seven male gorillas, living a truly bachelor lifestyle with their heated bedroom floors, are also worth a visit.

Loro Parque is one of three natural attractions in Tenerife. Siam Park is one of Europe’s newest and biggest water parks. Don’t be put off by the naffly-named rides – the Tower of Power isn’t as bad as it sounds. You will reach up to 40kph on this 28m freefall kamikaze ride just before you enter a clear flume through a shark pool.

To read the full article click here

For a map of Tenerife visit yourtenerife.net

A good article has appeared in the Daily Mail in the UK about the Tenerife of today - and past.

Guanches - tall, strapping shepherds from North Africa - were among the first-ever visitors to the Canary Islands, settling here more than 2,000 years ago, long before the Spanish took control in the early 15th Century.

Situated on arid land in the south of the island, San Blas - which opened last December - was earmarked to become a golf course.

But when a year-long clearance operation uncovered ancient caves and artefacts, it was turned into a nature reserve and hotel instead.

Volcanic eruptions have left the area rich in history rather than flora. The hotel’s multi-media exhibition explains how Guanches and the first Spanish settlers lived, and visitors can ‘meet’ these characters on a guided tour.

You also discover what life was like for the early Spanish settlers. In a documentary, you can watch a fishwife trek from the sea to the mountains, while, in a convincing enactment, tomato growers go about their business near the resort’s man-made lake which is populated by dancing dragonflies and waterfowl.

The hotel is part of Thomas Cook Holidays Sentido range. Sentido is Latin for ’sense’ and 19 hotels run by the tour operator in Europe and Africa are designed around the concept of appealing to all five senses. Each hotel has a signature scent - San Blas has a citrus bergamot smell in its 331 spacious bedrooms.

But the most enticing scent comes from the freshly cooked wreckfish, red mullet and tuna presented at the evening buffet in the airy, circular La Cueva de Atxona restaurant.

The taste element of Sentido Tenerife hotels is based on using local produce and the nightly spread of salads, vegetables and meats sits alongside traditional dishes.

If you feel like venturing a little further, the harbour of Los Abrigos is a five-minute walk from the hotel.

The quayside at Los Abrigos is dotted with seafood restaurants, and you can also watch fishing boats bobbing up and down in the sheltered bay and laughing children jumping off the harbour wall into the sea.

Sound is another sense catered for in Sentido hotels, with chill-out music playing in the bathrooms.

In the evening, the hotel’s Magma Hall hosts bands, while outdoors at the bar plaza there’s comedy, dance lessons, singing and the very popular mini-disco for children.

However, it is still possible to find lots of tranquil areas in the resort, where the only thing you will hear is the occasional owl swooping overhead.

Youngsters are welcomed in the resort - there’s a club where they can learn pottery, make kites or paint. And for adults, there are activities including yoga, tennis, volleyball, climbing and kayaking on the man-made lake.

For the touch element, San Blas has a mini-spa where visitors can enjoy a range of massages, use the sauna or rest weary muscles in a pool filled with water jets.

Eight outdoor infinity pools of various shapes and depths cascade through the resort down to the beachfront - in keeping with the eco-friendly theme, the pools use cleansed seawater. Two of the pools are heated, but year-round sunshine for the Tenerife weather means even the cool pools are a pleasant place to chill out.

It’s not possible to swim from the rocky beach in front of the hotel, though you can take a dip from the nearby beach at Los Abrigos with its black sand.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1222834/Tenerife-A-primitive-past-revealed-modern-resort.html#ixzz0gwwYd8KK

Google has introduced its Street View service for Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Majorca.

Brandrepublic report:

LONDON - Dodgy package holiday operators may find it harder to sell their ‘luxurious swimming pools’ and ’state-of-the-art’ jacuzzis, as Google adds popular destinations for British tourists to its Street View service.

Tenerife is known for her great beaches and year round weather, but for those who might want to see a bit of the rural part of the island during their holidays in Tenerife The Independent (who seem to have been doing really good travel articles lately) have written about it, saying:

Aren’t the Canaries better known for their beaches?

Certainly, but the islands also have some strikingly beautiful inland scenery – and more and more visitors are cottoning on. For the energetic, it’s all about enjoying the great outdoors; others just love the idea of sampling a simple, peaceful alternative to the bright lights of the resorts.

Is there much to explore?

Think banana plantations, cacti, dunes and volcanoes. Five out of the seven islands (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, El Hierro and Gran Canaria) are wholly or partly listed as Unesco biosphere reserves in recognition of their remarkable landscapes and unusual flora and fauna.

La Palma, in the thinly populated western Canaries, has such clear skies that it’s one of the best places in the northern hemisphere for stargazing. El Hierro’s unpolluted waters are perfect for scuba diving and La Gomera is topped with glorious, laurel-forested hiking country. Tenerife is dominated by El Teide, the highest mountain on Spanish territory. On both Tenerife and Gran Canaria, plantations share steep slopes with pine forests. On the arid eastern side of the archipelago, the ancient hills and plains of Fuerteventura are scattered with pretty windmills. Its neighbour, Lanzarote, is an artful assemblage of twisted lava dotted with perfect little hamlets.

To read the full aricle click through to The Independent here

For more Tenerife information including hotels, Tenerife villa holidays with companies like  James Villas visit http://www.yourtenerife.net