Lanzarote / Tenerife - casa rurale acommodation ...

trying to decide where to stay on either lanzarote or tenerife [haven't decided where to go yet] over christmas ... discovered the http://www.innsofcanaryislands.com/hotels.aspx website, which has one in southern tenerife that looks promising ...

and found http://www.ecoturismocanarias.com/canarias/uk/islas.asp which has a few interesting places in southern tenerife, but doesn't cover lanzarote ...

the bradt guidebook to the canary islands mentions that lanzarote doesn't have as much rural accommodation as the other islands ... although the toprural website has a good few places ...

Tenerife / Lanzarote - getting there from LIS

with the flight from MPM arriving into LIS on fri 22nd dec at 19:50 ... there are no connecting flights to get to tenerife - the last flight departs at 20:25 ...

the previous TAP flight from MPM arrives into LIS on thu 21st dec at 06:00 so there are plenty of flights ... although none are nonstop, with most taking around 5 hours, with some taking considerably longer ... opodo has prices from around 200 gbp for a return flight ...

there are no flights to Arrecife from LIS to connect with the 19:50 arrival on fri 22nd dec ...

there are quite a few flights to Arrecife from LIS on thu 21st dec ... opodo again has prices for a return flight for around 200 gbp for the indirect flights taking well over 5 hours ...

Tenerife / Lanzarote - getting there from DUB / BFS / NOC / LON

charterflights.co.uk is showing a flight from BFS to Tenerife on fri 22nd dec [dep 12:45 arr 17:05 ; dep 07:30 arr11:45] for 299 gbp ... and one from DUB on the same day for 479 gbp

aer lingus flies from DUB to Tenerife on fri 22nd and sat 23rd dec, with retun flights on fri 29th and sat 30th dec [other weeks the flights seem to be on different days of the week] ... with any combination of these return flights costing 350 gbp ... or retuning on mon 1st jan would be 399 gbp for the retun flight ...

the same website shows a departure from BFS to Arrecife, Lanzarote (ACE) on thu 21st dec [dep 13:40 arr 1750 ; dep 08:30 arr 12:40] for 299 gbp ... and one from DUB on sat 23rd dec [dep 13:15 arr 17:20 ; dep 08:00 arr 11:55] for 449 gbp and another on sun 24th dec [dep 06:00 arr 10:05 ; dep 11:05 arr 15:15] for the same price ... and one from NOC on thu 21st dec [dep 15:10 arr 19:15 ; dep 10:00 arr 14:10] for 519 gbp

aer lingus seems to have an erratic schedule to ACE ... their last flight before christmas leaves on wed 20th dec, with a return flight on sat 30th dec ... the return costing 340 gbp ... but by returning on tue 2nd jan, the price drops to 280 gbp ...

loads of departures from london to Tenerife on the fri 22nd dec [none on sat 23rd dec], including a monarch flight at 18:45 for around 230 gbp ...

also loads of departure from london to Arrecife on sat 24th from around 300 gbp ... or thu 21st dec from around 230 gbp [none on fri 22nd or sat 23rd dec] ...

Lanzarote vs Tenerife

looking at the weather for lanzarote over the last few years ... it seems slightly colder than the weather for southern tenerife around christmas ...

i read that the canaries tended to get hotter to the east ??

Cape Verde Islands - crime or hassle ?

i had a look at the Bradt guidebook to the cape verde islands ... and it looks like the crime/hassle level might be a bit too high for some of the less robust member of our group ...

annual travel insurance - 3rd attempt ...

had a look at HSBC travel insurance ... they have a healthy 50k gbp payment for total loss of a limb [no mention what happens if you only lose part of it] ... but the list of activities [page 15 of the booklet, page 17 in the pdf file] that they cover is laughable ... no offence to Rounders players, but it's not exactly top of my list of activies that i want covered !

annual travel insurance - 2nd attempt ...

in my continuing quest for travel insurance with decent personal accident benefits [a lost arm is worth more than 5k gbp], and covering a decent range of activities [my holidays include more than lying on a beach] ... i came across dog-tag ...

trouble is that whilst they specialise in covering lots of different sports/activities, their maximum personal accident payment is only 25k gbp ... not sure that would be enough to convert a house for disabled use, and buy wheelchairs for the rest of my life ... in the worst case scenario !

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - charter flights - 2nd attempt ...

spoke with Destination Portugal / Witney Travel Ltd ... and they say that the MAN to SID charter is full [where as Cape Verde / Eastgate Travel and teletickettravel say it is available] ... whilst unlike the others, they do have availability [she tried and was given 4 seats] on the LGW to SID charter [departs 09:45 arr 14:40 ; dep 15:40 arr 22:30] ... with a price of 486 gbp

they also quoted me prices including accomodation

• Vondel - 3 star - 735 gbp
• Moribezo - 4 star - 997 gbp

knock - manchester ... to connect with charter to SID ...

another option to get to MAN would be to fly from kNOCk airport [recently rebranded as Ireland West for whatever reason] ... bmibaby fly the route once a day ... the flight out on wed 20th dec is at 14:20 [44 cents], with the return flight on fri 29 dec at 12:30 [68.49 eur plus charges] apparently having just 3 seats left ... don't often look at the bmibaby website - hadn't seen that "remaining seats" feature before ...

the return flight including charges comes to 107.04 eur - considerably more expensive than flying out of DUB ...

dublin - manchester ... to connect with charter to SID ...

with the charter scheduled to depart MAN at 09:45 [and with service not yet having started for the winter, potentially subject to change] on thu 21st dec ... the first flight out of DUB to connect would be 06:30 with either Aer Lingus (EI) or Ryanair (FR) - getting into MAN around 7:30 ... which is probably cutting it too fine ...

that means travelling over the night before ... the last FR flight is at 18:10 [for just 99 cents plus charges], where as the last EI flight is at 20:30 for a very reasonable 1 euro !

the return flight from SID arrives into MAN at 00:45 on fri 29th dec ... so another overnight stay ... EI have flights dep MAN at 08:00 [29 eur], 13:20 [29 eur], 19:10 [15 eur] and 21:50 [5 eur] ... whilst FR have flights at 07:55 [12.99 eur], 13:40 [12.99 eur], 19:30 [9.99 eur] and 22:35 [5.99 eur] ... all prices are excl charges ...

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - scheduled - 4th attempt

for a laugh, thought i might as well try using my bmi diamond club frequent flyer points ...

unsurprisingly there is no availability on the LON-LIS-SID sectors on 21/22/23 or 24th december ... they do have availability on the return leg, but only in business class - which would cost me 30,000 ...

they do have availability on the LIS-SID sector for the 22nd december [dep 21:50 arr 00:45] - only 2 seats ... with availability on the SID-LIS leg on 30th and 31st december, as well as 1st january [dep 01:55 arr 06:35, or possibly the Sat flight dep 11:55 arr 16:35] - the return in business class [no economy available] would be 45,000 miles

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - scheduled - 3rd attempt

decided to call TACV in Lisbon, and ask about prices and availability ... very pleasant woman spoke a bit of english, and told me that a return for one week would be 559.66 eur ...

sounded great, until i asked about dates "oh no, completely full" ... the latest date in december when they have availability is 8th - not much good for a christmas trip !

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - scheduled - 2nd attempt

since it is the LIS-SID-LIS legs that are adding the huge cost [800 gbp], i thought that i would try booking singles - sometimes that turns out cheaper ...

using the TAP website, the LIS-SID sector comes in at 1088.88 eur [approx 740 gpb] ... and they can't even quote for the return sector as a single ... scratch that, just tried again, and they have - 52500 cve [approx 330 gbp] ... and just in case a return ex-SAL might be cheaper, i tried that ... but it comes in at 69100 cve [approx 430 gbp]

ah well, worth a try

annual travel insurance ...

my annual travel insurance is up for renewal, and i thought that i'd look again at the different options ... i currently use Trailfinders ...

it may seem a bit odd, but the main thing i look for is how much will it pay out if i lose a limb, or an eye ... i'm not interested in death payouts, and they all seem to have huge medical expenses limits. most of the main comparison sites such as the FT don't list "Personal Accident" in their table of comparitive values, so you have to go into each one to check the details ...

the standard payout seems to be around 25k or 30k gbp ... but i discovered that the Marks and Spencers policies have a 50k limit ... which sounds much better ... however the list of "Hazardous Sports and Activities" - page 19 of the policy, seems a bit excessive ...

Lanzarote - hot enough in mid winter ?

was having difficulty finding decent weather stats for Lanzarote [most seem to be from holiday website, who i suspect inflate them] ... but this ones seems legitimate ... still not sure if it is hot enough for a warm christmas ?

http://uk.weather.com/weather/climatology/SPXX0239.htm?dayofyear=354

Madeira weather ... too cold for christmas ?

i found these temperature averages for Madeira ... 16 or 17 degress Celcius looks a bit too cold for winter sun ...

http://www.eurometeo.com/english/climate/city_LPMA/clima_select/meteo_Madeira

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - charter flights ...

the only charter flights i can find are with Atraeus, who fly from Gatwick directly to SID (Sal airport) on a Thursday, and from Manchester via Banjul and on to SID, also on a Thursday

using Astraues' partner site Teletickettravel, there wasn't any availability showing for the Gatwick flight, so I phoned up the Cape Verde Travel in Hull - who told me that there are only a few seats left, and they are only being sold for two week trips. btw, Cape Verde Travel's telephone number is 01964 532679 - in case you don't want to use their 0845 number.

the flight from Manchester [dep MAN 09:15 arriving SID 14:35 ; return flight dep SID 15:35 arriving MAN 00:45] is showing on Teletickettravel as being available for 430 gbp - which is starting to look like the best option ... but travel on a Thursday morning is not the most convenient - would prefer to travel on Saturday 23rd ...

another travel agent offering cape verde holidays is Witney Travel Ltd ...

Cape Verde Islands ... how to get there - scheduled ...

got a bit of a shock looking at the flight prices

with TAP the price ex Gatwick via LISbon to SID [Sal airport] outbound on 23rd Dec and returning on 30the Dec is a jaw dropping 1,070 gbp and that is choosing the cheapest dates around this time, and price is the same ex LHR ...

the price for the LIS-SID leg is the crippling part - 800 quid !

using Amadeus to look at the scheduled flights - the only ones to SID are TAP/TACV and none of the flights to Praia (RAI), via continental europe, seem to go on a Saturday [which would be my preferred day of travel]

none of the main travel websites seem to use Cape Verde Airlines (TACV), so they are relying on TAP, and the TACV website itself seems only interested in US travellers ... so don't know how i can get online prices for TACV ?

the connections in Lisbon are:

LIS-RAI Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri - TACV
LIS-SID (Sal Airport) - M/T/W/T/F/S/S - TAP
and Wed/Sat/Sun - TACV

christmas options

have been looking into the following possible destinations

• Mauritius - bit too far from London for a week's holiday, and flights look expensive [over 800 gbp]
• Seychelles - again, too far for just a week, and similarly expensive
• Egypt - bit too unstable for some people
• Madeira - probably not warm enough
• Canary Islands - possibly not warm enough
• Cape Verde Islands - bit difficult to get to

dreaming of a hot christmas ...

looking for a destination to spend christmas ...

requirements:

• First world standards
• No more than about 5 hours flying time from London / Dublin
• No more than about 18 hours flying time from Maputo / Johannesburg
• Warm / hot weather
• Feels foreign - not looking for Ibiza style trip !
• Accommodation for 6 adults