22 May 2014

Club Med ski is such incredible value for money and if you have children is really the only way to go! It works so well for everyone and with everything included, although it may seem expensive to start with, if you worked out all the extra's you normally pay (lift passes, ski lessons, lunches, drinks etc.) it really is worthwhile. Valmorel is a ski in-ski out location right on the piste. It's a fairly new village and the rooms are very nice with everything you need. The restaurants are great with a lovely terrace overlooking the piste, for those long lunches in the sun! The ski area, although not huge, was adequate for a week for an intermediate skier. There is a lovely indoor swimming pool and spa to wash away those aches and pains at the end of the day. The child care was excellent and the full day with an ESF qualified instructor for all grade skiers was really beneficial. All in all a great weeks skiing in the sun!

22 May 2014

I love the Club Med concept and really liked this village. As with most of Club Med's properties this one is huge so depending where your room is allocated you could have some walking to do! Basically the resort is split into two parts, the hotel and the village. Personally I preferred the hotel part as the rooms had lovely balconies and you can pay extra for a sea view. The beautiful Zen pool (adults only) is also allocated near here and is the much quieter part of the resort. The main attraction of Club Med over other properties is the excellent kids clubs and the amazing sports facilities (all included in the price).You can do anything here from flying trapeze lessons to archery, with a bit of tennis, water skiing, zumba classes, dance lessons and sailing to name just a few! All are dead easy to participate in, you just turn up and join in. The high quality of food and drink also has to be mentioned, at some all-inclusive hotels you just get local brand spirits. Here it was Havana Club rum all the way! The food was very good too, with a choice of restaurants in the hotel and village and also the specialty restaurant for a la carte. Palmiye is set in a lovely location, with scenic mountains behind and a huge beach in front. There are plenty of comfortable sun loungers everywhere, so no towels at dawn here. All in all value for money I would highly recommend it, if you have any questions or need any help with the room differences please do not hesitate to contact me.

22 May 2014

From being met at Male by Four Seasons staff and being taken on a luxury speedboat to Kuda - we already felt like royalty! Tulio the general manager, greeted us and alongside him were more fabulous Four Seasons staff. We felt immediately at home and enjoyed a gorgeous Lomi. The Lomi drink is ginger, honey, lime juice and mint. Our amazing water villa with private pool was beautiful with amazing views. As soon as we strolled a few moments to the beach, the amazing staff were there with our cooling fresh water (accompanied by a "fruit" of the day). This was refilled and added to with lollies, sorbets, fruit sticks and smoothies! The glistening sea beckoned and the sand (which is not hot to walk on despite the heat) was as white as we have ever seen. There is complimentary sunscreen which is coconut scented and totally luxurious, and the infinity pool area is just amazing. Our favourite food was the Indian, the chef is from Four Seasons Mumbai and wow you can tell! Lobster heaven and prawns to die for! We did the sunset dolphin trip, which was stunning and just when we thought we weren't going to see any dolphins, they all arrived and put on a great show for us! This is a boutique feel island, very small and intimate where you truly feel spoiled! We did not want to leave!

22 May 2014

I love the Club Med concept and really liked this village. As with most of Club Med's properties, this one is huge so depending where your room is allocated you could have some walking to do! Basically the resort is split into two parts; the hotel and the village. Personally I preferred the hotel part as the rooms had lovely balconies and you can pay extra for a sea view. The beautiful Zen pool (adults only) is also allocated near here and is the much quieter part of the resort. The main attraction of Club Med over other properties is the excellent kids clubs and the amazing sports facilities (all included in the price). You can do anything here from flying trapeze lessons to archery, with a bit of tennis, water skiing, zumba classes, dance lessons and sailing to name just a few! All are really easy to participate in, you just turn up and join in. The high quality of food and drink also has to be mentioned, at some all-inclusive hotels you just get local brand spirits. Here it was Havana Club rum all the way! The food was very good too, with a choice of restaurants in the hotel and village and also the speciality restaurant for a la carte. Palmiye is set in a lovely location, with scenic mountains behind and a huge beach in front. There are plenty of comfortable sun loungers everywhere, so no towels at dawn here! All in all, value for money. I would highly recommend it. If you have any questions or need any help with the room differences please do not hesitate to contact me.

17 June 2013

On boarding Silver Spirit for my Silversea cruise, I knew I was in for a great week just by the welcome we got from the Silversea staff at Piraeus, everybody was in high spirits and very welcoming and when the first glass of Champagne was put in my hand at check in, I knew I had come home! I had cruised with Silversea before, and this was my second time on Silver Spirit which is their newest and largest ship carrying 540 passengers. I was slightly concerned that it may have been too large but the space ratio per passenger is the highest on any cruise ship and as we wandered around the ship, after a lovely lunch at the Pool Grill, I knew we were going to be fine. Our suite was stunning with plenty of space, a private teak veranda, two flat screen TV’s (built into the mirrors so you couldn’t see them unless they were on) and a beautiful marble bathroom with full size bath and a walk in shower – bliss! And if all that was not enough, we had Paul – our very own butler who would pack/unpack if you wanted, clean your luggage and shoes, run you a bath or book your restaurant for dinner, I really don’t think there was anything he wouldn’t do! Talking of restaurants, on board the Silver Spirit you have a great choice for dining – there is of course the main restaurant which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With open seating you can just dine whenever and with whoever you please. La Terrazza has authentic Italian cuisine and here you can eat inside or outside and an al fresco table for two soon became our favourite spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also enjoyed the Black Rock dining under the stars, where you could cook your own fresh seafood and prime meats on a heated volcanic rock plate – perfect! Completely different was Stars Supper Club, a small plate selection (like tapas) from around the globe accompanied by live jazz and a cabaret singer – certainly on board Silver Spirit you would never get bored of the dining choices. Waking that first morning after a great night’s sleep, perfect black out curtains and not a sound to be heard all night, we stepped out onto our balcony to see that we had arrived in Nauplia, Greece. As we were here all day, we decided to spend the morning by the pool, which we had to ourselves as almost everyone else had gone on shore and then after a leisurely lunch we decided to wander ashore ourselves. Nauplia was a pretty port with lots of interesting back streets with interesting shops all looking very tempting. We stopped for a drink in a square, where the bars spritzed a light mist of iced air to cool you down – I thought at first Paul the butler must have followed us, but no it was just an ingenious idea! The ports of call just seemed to keep getting better, one of the advantages of being on a smaller ship is that they can get into the smaller, prettier and more interesting ports and at most of them you can just get off and wander about which is perfect. We visited Corfu, Greece, Kotor, Montenegro, Zadar, Croatia and finishing in Venice. My favourite (although it was a difficult decision) was Kotor and from there we did a Silversea excursion by speedboat to the Blue Caves, a natural phenomenon offering you the opportunity to swim in crystal clear water , stunning and then to the beach where we were provided with a cold beer! The most romantic thing for me was sailing into Venice for our final port of call. We woke in the morning and saw the amazing view from our balcony and raced to the observation lounge. There we grabbed a coffee and pastry and went up on the top deck and took in the view, it was just amazing and something I will never forget! From the fabulous shows and the great fun we had in the Casino and the BBQ by the pool to dancing at the disco to DJ Rocco, it was fantastic. The 24 hour room service – breakfast on your own balcony was just lovely – and standing at the back of the ship watching the wake and the horizon makes me smile just thinking of it!

29 January 2012

Although a long flight to Mauritius, the transfer to the 5 star luxury Shandrani Spa Resort was just ten minutes away from the airport and the welcome was very warm! Check in was quick and easy, with an ice cold towel and a welcome cocktail and the view from the check in area over the pool, with the white sand and turquoise sea beyond, absolutely stunning the Shandrani Spa Resort definitely has the wow factor and perfect for a Honeymoon! After unpacking we headed straight for one of the three beaches, all beautiful - Shandrani Spa Resort really is in a stunning location. This beach became our favourite daily spot; we didn't even have to move to get a cold drink, as a man comes round with a cart taking orders for you. Although it would have been easy to be very lazy at the Shandrani, after a couple of days we were tempted to take a bit of gentle exercise! Everything is included so we enjoyed some water-skiing and sailed every day, but if you're more inclined there is plenty more to occupy you including golf, tennis, the gym, pedalos, kayaks, and snorkelling and mountain bikes. Every day there is a list of activities if you want to join in, but nobody comes round trying to get you to, thank goodness! The difficult decisions of the day are where to breakfast, lunch and dine as the Shandrani Spa Resort has 5 restaurants all included in the all inclusive package. For dinner you do need to book in any of the restaurants except the main restaurant, Le Grand Port, and on arrival I would recommend you to do this! We loved lunch at Le Grand Port, you could have a table outside, almost right on the beach, this is the only buffet restaurant and although I am not a buffet fan, I really liked it here. For dinner we really enjoyed the Teak Elephant (Thai) Porto Vecchio (Italian) and Le Sirius (Mediterranean). The standard of food was very good everywhere, as was the choice. The wine list at all restaurants was also very good, with a very large selection all served by the bottle and also part of the all inclusive package. Champagne is served by the glass and cocktails are premium brand spirits. Our time at the Shandrani Spa Resort passed by so quickly I didn't even make it to the spa, normally my favourite place, so I will have to return to try it out along with the aerobics classes, mountain bikes and the windsurfing! Mauritius is warm all year round but September to December is traditionally a great time to visit the island as the temperatures are warmer, and humidity is not at its peak!