activity holiday over easter

looking for somewhere to go for easter and to avoid flag waving royal jollity, i've been trawling the websites ...

Saddle Skeddadle have a couple of interesting trips - one to Spain, and a couple of different trips to Sardinia

Adventure Travel have a very well hidden search engine, but when you finally find it, they have an interesting trip to Iran/Persia

Exodus also has a decent search engine - they have a few self guided cycling trips, including one to Corsica

Tucan have an interesting calendar based search ... and an interesting trip to Lombok

Explore has a fairly rubbish search function, which returns lots of trips outside the dates that you enter ... and of those that do meet the dates, quite a few are to parts of the Middle East currently in turmoil ...

KE have a decent search engine - but don't have anything very useful

Dragoman have a really rubbish search engine ... and no useful trips

Intrepid Travel has a not very impressive search function ... but does have a couple of useful trips, but they're all full !

Kumuka has a seriously rubbish search engine, that returns a pile of trips which are full !

Cycle Active don't seem to have any search function at all !

Imaginative Traveller have a reasonable search engine, but don't seem to like bookings within less than a week to go ...

Nature Trek have a decent search function, but no availability !

Peregrine has a nice looking search engine ... but it doesn't work !

Sherpa don't have anything particularly inspiring.

Walks Worldwide don't have any sort of useful search options whatsoever !

GAP adventures have a decent search, but unhelpfully it brings up trips that are full.

Neilson Adventures act as an agent for a range of other companies ... their search function starts off being quite good, but it returns fully booked trips, grrr !

Page & Moy allow you to search by departure date - but don't have anything useful.

Hiking in Norway ...

Looking at a hiking trip in Norway in the Summer ...

For inspiration and ideas, Exodus has a trip, as do Explore and also a company I've never heard of called Sherpa Walking Holidays ...

Cycling in the Lofoten Islands ...

looking for a cycling holiday in the Lofoten Islands in Norway ... quite restricted on timings each month !

Found a departure from Bodø with Skedaddle on Saturday 23rd July that looks good ...

To get to BOdØ there is a reasonably priced Norwegian flight from LGW to OSLo departing on Friday 22nd July at 20:00 ... could then stay overnight at the airport before getting another flight on to BOdØ the next morning ...

On the return journey, there are a few different options to get back to London.

more flights to barcelona ...

now looking for flights from london to barcelona ...

thu 30th dec

dep Luton 08:45 to Barcelona for 79 gbp with Easyjet

dep Luton 17:40 to Gerona for 83 gbp with Ryanair or

wed 29th dec

dep Gatwick 17:20 to Gerona for 72 gbp with Ryanair or

dep Stansted 16:05 to Barcelona for 83 gbp with Easyjet or

dep Gatwick 13:50 or 18:15 to Barcelona for 87 gbp with Easyjet or
dep Luton 08:45 to Barcelona for 95 gbp with Easyjet or

dep Stansted 17:40 to Gerona for 105 gbp with Ryanair

on the way back, looking to depart from Alicante on 3rd Jan, the best option is at 19:50 for 95 gbp

england to spain for new year ...

looking to go to spain for new year ...

one of the options is to depart on wednesday 29th december from bristol at 09:10 to gerona for 80 gbp ...

on the way back, one of the options is to depart from alicante on monday 3rd january at 19:30 to gatwick for 96 gbp

dublin to spain for new year ...

looking to go to spain for new year ...

the best prices are all to barcelona, with the options:

mon 27th
dep 06:40 for 107 eur or dep 17:50 for 127 eur
tue 28th
dep 06:40 for 127 eur
wed 29th
dep 06:40 for 149 eur or dep 10:05 for 170 eur
thu 30th
dep 06:40 for 107 eur or dep 17:50 for 127 eur


the options for flights back to dublin on mon 3rd jan are:

dep barcelona 08:10 for 92 eur or
dep alicante 20:35 for 76 eur

Gibraltar to Morocco ...

Looking to travel from Gibraltar to Morocco on Fridday 15th October ... there is a departure at 19:00, arriving into Tanger Med at 18:00 for 42 EUR per foot passenger with FRS ... the new port of Tanger Med is about 40km from the city and there is apparently a free bus service as part of the ferry ticket ...

Alternatively, there are ferries from Algeciras to Tanger Med departing at 07:30, 11:00, 15:00 and 18:00 (all arriving one hour before departure!) for 37 EUR per foot passenger ...

london to morocco ...

departing london thu 14th october ...
morning flight: dep STN 07:50 arr FEZ 10:10 for 30 gbp
evening flight: dep LGW 18:50 arr AGA 22:00 for 90 gbp

departing london fri 15th october ...
morning flight: dep LTN 06:00 arr RAK 08:35 for 73 gbp ... or ... dep LGW 09:55 arr GIB 13:45 for 48 gbp
afternoon flight: dep LGW 16:10 arr RAK 18:50 for 125 gbp

departing london sat 16th october ...
no morning flights listed ... but could dep LGW 07:15 arr GIB 11:05 for 58 gbp
afternoon flight: dep STN 15:50 arr AGA 18:40 for 45 gbp


departing morrocco sun 31st october ...
dep FEZ 19:35 arr STN 22:55 for 67 gbp
dep GIB 19:15 arr LTN 21:00 for 124 gbp
dep RAK 17:35 arr LTN 21:15 for 176 gbp ... or ... dep RAK 15:30 arr LGW 19:05 for 177 gbp
dep CMN 12:20 arr LHR 15:50 for 182 gbp
dep AGA 12:00 arr LGW 15:35 for 189 gbp

car hire in swansea ...

looking at hiring a small care in swansea from 17-19th july ...

the cheapest appears to be enterprise with 42 gbp ...

next is hertz with 60 gbp ...

then they start getting a bit silly ... alamo want 74 gbp ... europcar charge 82 gbp ... avis demand 108 gbp and sixt reckon on a ridiculous 131 gbp ...

edinburgh for the august bank holiday

the cheapest accommodation in edinburgh for this august's bank holiday weekend appears to be at edinburgh university with single ensuite rooms available from 57.5 gbp and single rooms with shared bathrooms at 43 gbp per night ... however over at laterooms they have single rooms with shared facilities available from 38 gbp per night ...

in order to get there trains from london to edinburgh would cost about 85 gbp return [37 outbound on saturday morning / 48 inbound monday evening] ... booking through eastcoast mainline would save 5 gbp outbound, and could get first class on the return for just 5 gbp extra ...

travelling from london to glasgow would be a bit cheaper at 46 gbp return [27 outbound / 19 inbound] ...

an outbound train on friday afternoon to glasgow would could 55 gbp single ...

london to edinburgh flights cost over 100 gbp return at sensible times ...