Holidays 2022

[his4r2eh]

I’m so sorry. I’m afraid there’s not much you can do other than wait and hope for the best. What airline was it with? I know some just need time to get the luggage back but it’s not actually “lost”.

We had luck with ours yesterday (Düsseldorf to Fuerteventura) but packed a carry on with a change of clothes and all the things I couldn’t stand the thought of loosing. Was annoying to travel with a total of four suitcases but it’s such a huge problem atm (especially at Düsseldorf airport)

Thank you.
It was with Wizz airlines who I don’t recommend at all! My partner did a lot of the booking for this trip and I have learnt that it is best not to allow that in future!

Thankfully I got a number for Menzies Aviation who handle the baggage and they’ve been excellent. You have to wait on hold a long time but their staff have really helped. I’ve just spoken to someone who followed up their colleagues work and the bag ought to be on the next flight to Gatwick tonight, after which they’ll call me to arrange delivery! I’ll be thrilled if it all comes off.

And for anyone in my situation, I think persistence and finding out who handles the baggage for your airline at that airport is key.

Happy to speak to anyone else who might stumble on this post in their desperate quest for help! I’ve been Googling for days

 

[mcfeez]

Anyone got any insight into Puerto Rico Gran Canaria? I'm thinking of it for a 5 night break in Oct but have never been before.

I love Puerto del Carmen in Lanzarote for a relaxed vibe and am hoping for something similar?

(Flight times not working for PDC so thats why i'm looking at PR)

The only Canary Island I've visited is Tenerife and I know you haven't mentioned it so apologies if you aren't interested at all - the Costa Adeje area is lovely on Tenerife and nice and chill if you are looking for a relaxed vibe.

 

[LittleMy]

We've decided to avoid going abroad for one more year. We've got Cornwall booked for Easter and then a trip to Scotland (near Bute) in August. Really looking forward to both trips but slightly anxious about the Scottish rules changing (we are in England) and also the risk of midgies!!

For the midges I highly recommend stocking up on this:

It makes a great insect repellant.

Hope all goes well and the rules and restrictions don’t affect your holiday here.

 

[Cariad]

i've just booked Edinburgh in December for my bf's 30th - he's always wanted to go, we'll be there the week leading up to Christmas so i can only imagine how beautiful it'll be! I told him he has 6 months of me playing bagpipe videos on youtube and repeating everything i say in a Scottish accent

Edinburgh at Christmas is lovely, we love going for Christmas shopping - for the atmosphere and loads of wonderful places to eat ( it's my husband's birthday just before Christmas too, so we usually book a fab place to eat)
the Christmas markets are definitely worth a visit too

 

[Monkeybum]

Supposedly West Coast US in March and Florida in August. Whether either will happen is another matter

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

Cheapest way to get around Belfast for 4 days? I know there are travel passes. But the visitor pass is a miaximum of 3 days and not all the passes work with all companies buses.

I walked around most of Belfast to be honest. It’s not too bad. And then the travel was quite cheap.

 

[Warpaint]

Is Lisbon worth visiting solo? I'm thinking March

 

[noseybirdxo]

Belfast is good for a short city break. As many have recommended, the Giants Causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in general in N.Ireland so that is worth doing if you want to leave the city.

Many tourists do the black cab tours which go round many of the murals in Belfast. I've heard from others they are meant to be very informative and interesting! The bus tour is also good. There is also the Titanic Museum and Crumlin Road Gaol which are popular attractions.

Belfast has a good selection of restaurants and bars, many with live music, particularly on the weekends and a nice local market which opens on the weekends too. There are also local food and drinks tours which are meant to be great.

Second all of what you said, however I’ll just add here that my father in law is Belfast born and bred and has known of locals not liking the bus tour that shows all the murals and there’s been stories of them being egged

 

[Bubbledoggyyeah]

Booked two weeks in Bali for the summer! I’m already getting the Covid anxiety arghhh

 

[Happy Lady]

What have everyone’s experiences of delayed/lost luggage been recently? Ours got left at Vienna on Sunday and world tracer says ‘continuing to trace’. There were really sentimentally valuable things in our case and things compensation won’t cover. I’m really anxious about it and hoping to get an idea of what to expect from others. Thanks in advance!

This is a fear I have every time we fly. As soon as our cases come on the conveyor belt I can relax. Did you tie anything around your case to make it easily distinguishable? Can you ask your travel agent to get involved in the search? I feel for you, and hope your case is soon recovered.

 

[Emmelina Ball]

Cheapest way to get around Belfast for 4 days? I know there are travel passes. But the visitor pass is a miaximum of 3 days and not all the passes work with all companies buses.

Belfasts not that big most things you can walk to if you’re able to. I lived there until I was in my late 20s so feel free to ask anything not sure what you’re into but lots of people love the Titanic tour. Crumlin road gaol is also a good experience. If you’re here over a weekend try and squeeze in St. George’s market it’s lovely for a wander around at all the local arts & foods. Also upstairs in there is a restaurant called Stock Kitchen that serves the best fry in Belfast!

 

[noseybirdxo]

Yes but I think because we will have a buggy we will go through priority anyway, I’m flying with jet2 from Manchester, I’ve looked a couple of times but this appears when I try and book it

from what I’ve heard jet2 hasn’t had any problems and seems to be running quite smoothly! try seeing if jet2 can include fast track with your package? I’m sure i’ve seen people say it was included for them!


in other news, I have finally transferred/booked my holiday! we had Orlando booked for September which we’d booked start of 2021 but i started getting really icky about going after the borders opened up and I saw how cringe people were in this orlando group i joined I also had decided it would’ve been nearly 3 years since our last holiday and realised I wanted something far more relaxing and it was going to cost a lot of money when we’re trying to move and we’ve got numerous weddings next year inc. one in Barbados! so now we’ve booked to go to Rhodes i’m so excited as i’ve only ever been to Zante so it’ll be nice to experience a more authentic Greece! I want to go to Rhodes old town and to Lindos whilst there!

 

[soymilk]

Hi it was a breeze in the end, security with fast track from terminal 3 took about 20 mins, without fast track looked like it would take about an hour. Airport was very busy though with queues for the bar and costa, though I had 3 hours to kill anyway!. Currently sat on my balcony with my duty free .

phew! Glad it was better than you imagined - I hope you have a really good holiday

 

[Miss polar]

Agree this is a great thread. I love holidays, and love hearing everyone’s plans.

Have also found it useful as well, and picked up some tips.

I am looking at doing a solo cruise (1 st time never been before)
Hubby hates the idea of cruising, and friends aren’t interested either.
As I’ve never been on a cruise before, I was thinking of a mini cruise , maybe 3-4 days from Southampton,to see if I like it!

Can anyone point me in the right direction and suggest something for a cruise virgin.

Also, can I have your recommendations for somewhere central but cheap to stay in Glasgow please.
Friend and I are going for an event and just really want somewhere to lay our heads for two nights. We will be out of the room most of the time.
Thanks muchly.

 

[Lonewolf]

Depends what you’ll do/time of year. When we went we went as family of 4 (2adults, 2teenagers), we used two suitcases. We just stayed by the pool and beach. Went into the town at night sometimes. Mostly packed swimwear and swimwear coverups for the day. And a few night time outfits. Since we just went to the pool/beach in the day we just wore flip flops every day. Took nicer shoes for evening, although probably just ended up wearing the flip flops as find them comfier.

Ooh love holiday outfit planning! Similar to above…swimwear/casual wear shorts, vests, flip flops etc. then maybe trainers if going out in the day? But literally just casual beach/pool wear. I find things don’t get as dirty and you re wear on hols as in pool etc. i love night time outfits too but depends where going…kids just wear their casual stuff but I like evening outfits/jewellery but depends if that’s your thing. I’d definitely get it in 1 case for the 2 of you! And hand luggage! Enjoy!

Thank you both so much . We going late Aug have waterpark, boattrips pool/beach days planned and maybe a meal out as we are all Inc. I think you both nailed pretty much what I have so far so maybe I'm not out of touch as I thought I was haha. Our last couple of holidays have been winter ones so think that's what's thrown me. Thank you so much for your help I feel much less stressed now

 

[Mrspowell]

I was going to book a last minute today but I’m not keen to right now…

 

[mcfeez]

Just not sure on the answer so figured best to ask here - I’m going away this week - I take a few bits of prescribed medication and then some vitamins/supplements that I take, I normally put all my medicine in one of them medicine boxes for each day. Can I take this in my hold luggage in the box or do I need to take it in the original packaging or in my hand luggage in a clear bag?

Wouldn't recommend taking your medication in your hold luggage just in case it gets lost.

 

[HoGi]

Calling all cruisers! We used to cruise a lot before Covid but not been since - been doing a lot of lift and shifts.

So, we go in September with Celebrity around Greece and Turkey, and have just spent most of the day completing forms for them - nearly all day, and still not finished.

First - we had to take our photos and upload them on their system. OH had half his face missing, and mine just refused to load. Getting frustrated so my son came to the rescue and suggested we don't use the selfies we'd taken, but photo each other. He then made them the right size and it worked!

Second - they wanted us to download their App. Took me ages to recover my Google account, but eventually managed, then opened the App. It tells me nothing that I can't find out on the ship, but it did ask me three THREE 3 questions, one being was I over 23 weeks pregnant. At 66 I doubt it, and my OH is male so!!!

Third - we have to load our NHS Covid Card. Well, I'll be damned if either of us could find it, so I've printed off our Covid Certificates, all three pages, but I've no idea where I could load them.

Fourth - we need an Antigen Test 48 hours or less before we travel. Well, we travel at 5pm on a Monday, so need our test after 5pm on Saturday. A lot of places have now stopped doing these as they are not needed so much. Finally found one in the centre of Leeds that stays open until 8pm - so that's a 24 mile round trip and £30 each for the privilege.

Fifth - they want us to pdf a copy of our passports, but no clue as to where to do this. By now I've lost the will, and they're going to have to wait until we arrive at check in.

Sixth - we still can't print off our luggage labels or eDocs (as they call them) as they need processing

Hey ho.

We are seriously considering cancelling our next cruise as can't be bothered going through all this again, and our insurance to the Caribbean is over £1,000

Anyone else had similar issues? And they wonder why they can't fill cruise ships any more. All the grannies won't have a chance.

I'm setting off on a cruise tomorrow with princess cruises.

Likewise a lot of it had to be done on the app.

But I think there is options to do it as you board but it will make the boarding process a lot slower.

My biggest gripe has been they told us we needed medically observed lateral flow tests and then yesterday changed it to normal lateral flows and no need to upload result!!! So we could have used one of our old NHS ones and just done the self declaration instead of spending £30 each on observed ones.

 

[Saddlesoap]

@strawb (or anyone) can you give me any Croatia advice for a friend.
Do you know the Dubrovnik area at all?

 

[BettyCrockerr]

One thing I take is a T-shirt I’m happy to swim in just incase I get burnt - but I often get burnt easily especially on my shoulders. Just meant I could still enjoy myself but cover up areas where I want to avoid the sun getting to

Wear a rash vest, they have high UV protection and are designed to be worn in the water so dry off quickly and don’t get heavy when wet like a normal tshirt