2023 holidays

[Tinkerbell cat]

We have just booked Thailand for January. Something to look forward to and to save for!

 

[strawb]

i'm going to paris in 10 days i've booked pretty much everything i wanted but wanted to ask if anyone has any tips or advice?

 

[Mammy2021]

i'm going to paris in 10 days i've booked pretty much everything i wanted but wanted to ask if anyone has any tips or advice?

It’s a long time since I was in Paris but my God what a city! So much to do. It’s so chic and the patisseries and restaurants !!! Check out the Louvre museum, it’s amazing. I went to the palace of Versailles too and hired bikes and cycled around. If your French isn’t up to scratch, don’t worry. Most Parisians speak good English although do try make an effort and say bonjour and merci. Check some of the Paris forums like on trip advisor, they can be quite handy! Have an amazing time!

 

[Welshgal]

Looking for destination ideas please for family of 4 with older teenagers. Don’t want a huge hotel type place so wasn’t sure if one of the smaller greek islands be better? Or the canaries? As long as it has a pool, sun and a bar we’re pretty flexible!

Have to agree with @fudgebox.
Adore Puerto Rico / Gran Canaria in general! They have a new mall in Puerto Rico which is perfect for a shopping day and some really good places for dinner but then you also have a lovely beach and the surrounding areas are beautiful as well. Lots of different hotel options from big to small, fancy and plain, apartments etc.

 

[Welshgal]

A friend of mine is a travel agent and she says that last minute deals are mostly a thing of the past. It‘s best to book early with a flex option so you‘re prepared for what might come but also if there is something cheaper you can switch

 

[fudgebox]

Looking for destination ideas please for family of 4 with older teenagers. Don’t want a huge hotel type place so wasn’t sure if one of the smaller greek islands be better? Or the canaries? As long as it has a pool, sun and a bar we’re pretty flexible!

We love Puerto Rico Gran Canaria! We’ve not been since precovid but we have been about 3 or 4 times and love it!

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

How anyone been to Egypt in February? or anyone who’s been to Egypt in general, would you recommend for two people that aren’t that well travelled? I’ve always wanted to go and can get a good deal, but we’ve only been to Rome and Paris as adults together, so we knew a lot of people spoke English there and a lot of the words are sometimes similar enough to get by, but they obviously speak Arabic in Egypt which is completely different and you hear stories of pickpocketers and sticking to safe areas but idk if those stories are just exaggerated and have a bit of racism to them as well, because people say the same about London and I’ve never had a problem.

We want a long haul trip so aren’t sure whether to pick something easier for 2 people that are limited in experience of travelling, but I also don’t want to go somewhere for the sake of going over somewhere I actually want to go.

I can only speak for what my friends and family have said. Others might have had different experiences.
But none of the people I know recommended it. They found it dirty and fairly dangerous outside of the holiday complex.
All the couples had trouble with egyptian men who thought they could be inappropriate with the women.
And no lie, mind you this was a good 20 years ago my friend was 16 when she went with her parents and a few people offered to buy her from her parents

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

Thinking of going to Orlando this summer - June maybe. I had a when I saw the price of the park tickets! Does anybody have any tips in getting cheaper tickets. We wouldn’t want 2 weeks park tickets as we would be doing other stuff so any tips very much appreciated!

Depends how many days you actually plan on doing and which parks? It’s quite often cheaper to just go for the 14 day tickets. Maybe just lower the amount of parks you want to do? So say go just go Universal’s parks, Disney’s parks or some of the others.

you will probably be back at some point anyway! We did a “once in a lifetime” trip in 2017 and have been now 3 times!

 

[Former_Antelopee]

Look at onthebeach or sunmaster. Someone I work with always went with tui but when I told him about these sites he was shocked at how much better deals they have. We’ve booked with both over years and no issues. Onthebeach you can see Tripadvisor scores for the hotels which I think is the best way to decide if it’s a nice hotel. I then always double check the price against sunmaster to find the cheapest.

 

[fudgebox]

How anyone been to Egypt in February? or anyone who’s been to Egypt in general, would you recommend for two people that aren’t that well travelled? I’ve always wanted to go and can get a good deal, but we’ve only been to Rome and Paris as adults together, so we knew a lot of people spoke English there and a lot of the words are sometimes similar enough to get by, but they obviously speak Arabic in Egypt which is completely different and you hear stories of pickpocketers and sticking to safe areas but idk if those stories are just exaggerated and have a bit of racism to them as well, because people say the same about London and I’ve never had a problem.

We want a long haul trip so aren’t sure whether to pick something easier for 2 people that are limited in experience of travelling, but I also don’t want to go somewhere for the sake of going over somewhere I actually want to go.

We went when I was about 9, we mostly stayed at the resort, but did the quad biking on the sand dunes and also popped into the towns, I remember a man was dragging me into a shop and my brother almost decked him

 

[Delia Smith]

Once you’ve proof of full vaccination (that doesn’t include what extra boosters you’ve had) and they’ve a list of approved vaccines on the US CDC website, you’re fine. Those vaccines include the likes of the 1 dose Janson vaccine. I have to go to the US for work in April so I’m checking this now too.
Your vaccine passport will have your name and your date of birth and the name on your vaccine certificate should match the name on your passport.
Hope this helps!

Brill thanks, i'm going in 3 weeks for work too
I just re-downloaded the NHS app and my covid passport is valid until August x

 

[adviseplz]

Not 2023 it’ll be 2024 if we decide to go. But wondering if anyone has any advice. Looking at going to Florida, we aren’t Disney fans so don’t want to go to any of the theme parks. Probably go for two weeks and looking at the Everglades National park and space center as two things we would want to do. Quite a bit of relaxing and beach days. Where would be the best place to stay? I’ve never really wanted to go to America but my friend wants to go and I usually pick where we go so I feel like she should decide for once

Also just looking now for a rough price of hotel/flights as I like to plan ahead

I've just planned 10 days around Florida for June so can give you some more detailed info if you're still interested! x

 

[Welshgal]

It’s fab isn’t it! Can’t wait to go back

Me too! We tried to find a good quote to go back in August but flights from where we live were crazy expensive as were all the hotels we like. Don‘t even get me started on the price of rental cars

 

[Mammy2021]

Once you’ve proof of full vaccination (that doesn’t include what extra boosters you’ve had) and they’ve a list of approved vaccines on the US CDC website, you’re fine. Those vaccines include the likes of the 1 dose Janson vaccine. I have to go to the US for work in April so I’m checking this now too.
Your vaccine passport will have your name and your date of birth and the name on your vaccine certificate should match the name on your passport.
Hope this helps!

 

[Welshgal]

I’m from wales too guessing from your name think we used to always fly from Bristol but no idea how much flights are these days

I actually live in Germany but have checked Manchester as my family lives close by and Murcia as I‘ll be going to university there and literally ALL flights are super expensive. On top of all the drama at airports flying really is no more fun these days.

 

[Romy]

How anyone been to Egypt in February? or anyone who’s been to Egypt in general, would you recommend for two people that aren’t that well travelled? I’ve always wanted to go and can get a good deal, but we’ve only been to Rome and Paris as adults together, so we knew a lot of people spoke English there and a lot of the words are sometimes similar enough to get by, but they obviously speak Arabic in Egypt which is completely different and you hear stories of pickpocketers and sticking to safe areas but idk if those stories are just exaggerated and have a bit of racism to them as well, because people say the same about London and I’ve never had a problem.

We want a long haul trip so aren’t sure whether to pick something easier for 2 people that are limited in experience of travelling, but I also don’t want to go somewhere for the sake of going over somewhere I actually want to go.

Yes been there looongtime ago (1999), a one-week cruise from Luxor, had a fabulous price thanks to my job in tourism at the time...
I loved it but I love history/culture... Fascinating culture. People were nice really but the political/social situation has changed a lot since. It wasn't especially safe then, I think it's quite worst now, especially for women.

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Does anyone know what France, in particular Paris, is like on bank holidays?
We're hoping to go in May and it falls on May 1st which is Labour day. Google says virtually all shops are closed and most restaurants are too but I figured we could get a nice picnic and go to parks etc. but not sure if it'll be a waste of a day in terms of touristy stuff and if we should move the dates. We're only planning on going for 4 days

It's not as it used to be in Paris. A lot of places are opened, especially touristy. Just avoid the traditional marchs which start at place de la République. It's Workers' day in reality, not Labour day.

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Can anyone advise me about the Eurostar please? Hoping to do a night in London and then hop on the Eurostar and do a night in Paris and back to London. Is this doable? Obviously it is but is more than one night two days in Paris necessary? I'm going more for the Eurostar than Paris to be perfectly honest.

Thanks in advance

There are like 18 Eurostar a day, so you can do it. But to each his own Eurostar is like a typical fast train (well faster on the French side), it's no Orient Express.

 

[champagnepinkk]

My holidays for this year are booked!

I’ve never gotten overly excited for holidays until recently, maybe because I’m older and truly enjoy my man’s company lol.

id Love to go to Zanzibar next year don’t have space to go this year unfortunately

 

[Former_Antelopee]

What is this free childcare thing?

It’s free child place so you pay for the adult and children under a certain age go free.
Although someone I work with always booked with tui due to this. I told him about on the beach and it was much cheaper even though there was no free child place. He was shocked at how much cheaper it was.

 

[adviseplz]

Hi does anyone know the best time to book flights to the USA looked the other day and for myself and my daughter it was £800 one day later it had gone up by £450 which is ridiculous as we could have gone premium for that! Hoping they may come back down again but it is Easter Holiday time when we would be flying

The only tricks I know is to book last minute or if you know somebody who works for the airline and you can use their discount

I'm not sure how much of a good deal you'd get going to the US if you booked last minute. Lots of people travel there for business so they tend to hike the prices up close to the time for that reason. It's also a lot more expensive if you're not there over a weekend as they assume it's a business trip.

I fly short-haul semi regularly and have found that 4 months in advance is a good price (may be similar for the US but not sure!) My advice would be to sign up to sky scanner/kayak and keep an eye on the prices there for a few weeks/months and you'll get an idea of how it fluctuates. If you're going in Easter though you have loads of time.

Also always search + book flights in a private browser and direct from the airline. So use sky scanner to figure out the prices and then go direct. Your cookies will tell them that you're looking to fly on certain dates and they'll hike prices up to encourage you to panic buy... which could explain the 450 increase.

 

[Former_Antelopee]

How anyone been to Egypt in February? or anyone who’s been to Egypt in general, would you recommend for two people that aren’t that well travelled? I’ve always wanted to go and can get a good deal, but we’ve only been to Rome and Paris as adults together, so we knew a lot of people spoke English there and a lot of the words are sometimes similar enough to get by, but they obviously speak Arabic in Egypt which is completely different and you hear stories of pickpocketers and sticking to safe areas but idk if those stories are just exaggerated and have a bit of racism to them as well, because people say the same about London and I’ve never had a problem.

We want a long haul trip so aren’t sure whether to pick something easier for 2 people that are limited in experience of travelling, but I also don’t want to go somewhere for the sake of going over somewhere I actually want to go.

I went to sharm it was about 10 years ago and loved it. We went into the town a few times but mostly just stayed in the hotel complex. Wouldn’t say we had any trouble, people were badgering to get you into restaurants/shops but didn’t find that any different to a lot of other places I’ve been. It’s worse if you’re blonde. I remember one shop didn’t pester people to come in and it was very busy in that one shop and the cashier was just sat reading a paper.
The hotel was amazing, we went all inclusive and there was 5 different restaurants, 3 pools and it was on the beach. The snorkeling was great. We went in august thought so not sure about feb.