Family hols and new looks at familiar places - What the Saturday papers say
March 19, 2006This week's movie tie-in is written by John Hillcoat, director of The Proposition, an Outback Western. He writes, in The Guardian, that the film (with a screenplay by Nick Cave) demanded a location that could "highlight the contrast between the landscape and the non-indigenous people who tried to make it their own". Location: Winton, Queensland, a land of "scorched earth and primeval cave formations".
Luxury for less is always an inviting proposition, and staying with The Guardian, there are five suggestions for holiday destinations (Anguilla, Lamu, Sardinia, Cote d'Azur and Amalfi) where you can rub shoulders with the jet set even if your pockets aren't quite as deep.
With Easter just beyond the horizon, the papers go big on family holidays. The Daily Telegraph has a feature on child-friendly cruising by Jane Archer. On their cruise on a Royal Caribbean International ship, Archer "barely saw" her daughter as the little girl was having so much fun. In the same paper, Judith Woods discovers the secret Andalusian holiday destination of her friends and takes her daughter there. The "unspoilt" corner of Spain is Agua Amarga, a 40-minute drive northeast of Almeria airport, while Joanna Symons keeps a group of young teenagers happy on the Datça Peninsula in Turkey, about 20 miles west of Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast. Finally, in The Times, Martin Symington takes his teenage children to Morocco, just before the country opens up to the low-cost airlines.
Tim Parks and teenage daughters (The Mirror) enjoy a half-term holiday in Lanzarote. The girls are reluctant to leave the pool, but the family does make a trip to Timanfaya National Park. "Spectacular mountains formed by lava flow from a real live volcano. You could watch food being cooked on a grill over a hole in the ground... Some people threw wood and bushes into another hole and it flared into flames immediately," he writes. Despite all this natural excitement, the girls headed back to the car wondering what delights lay in store at the hotel that night.
Peter Hardy of The Daily Telegraph heads to Lake Tahoe in Nevada for the gaming, and skiing at Heavenly on the other side of the road in California. A world away, in Kashmir, Tam Leach (The Independent) discovers that the Indian side of the disputed territory is attracting skiers to the Himalayas. The resort of "Gulmarg boasts the world's highest gondola, ascending to short-breath inducing heights of 13,400ft (4,084m)" and "it is almost nothing like the usual ski experience".
How many offshore islands does England have is the question posed by Simon Calder, the Travel Editor of The Independent. The answer depends on what time of day it is. Rising tides create some islands and drowns others. Off the Northumberland coast, Calder writes, "there are 15 Farne Islands at high tide; 28 when the water recedes". "At low tide, the Scilly archipelago has about 140 islands and islets." In total there are about one thousand rocky outposts, the vast majority of which are inhabited only by birds and wildlife. The Times holidays at home too, albeit on dry land, with its guide to the best country houses. Cath Urquhart does the hard work of wafting around grand estates, and there's a fun article about what type of guest you might be. Are you a couple like Diana and Anthony, the gastronomes; Emmy and Ste (the name Steve being so 20th century), the urbanites; Jane and Simon, the romantics; or Leo and Olivia, the sleep-starved mama and papa?
New ways of looking at familiar places could be the thread running between Frank Partridge's feature on Sao Bras de Alportel on The Algarve (The Independent) - "not just sun, beaches and golf" - and Iain Mayhew's (The Mirror) article on Madeira, a favourite of retired folk. Some of the island's hotels are trying to attract a younger audience to quintas, originally manor houses with high walls, that offer a stylish - and often cheaper - alternative to conventional hotels. Mayhew also makes the point that the island has a lot to offer people seeking an active holiday.
Bermuda, slap bang in the Atlantic Ocean, is Simon Calder's destination, and no, he doesn't get lost in the famous Triangle. Escape the rainy months of December to March, seek out sunny days in April and November, but pencil in May as the best month to see the island. Calder writes that BA will fly there daily from next weekend with fares starting at £662 return. Going via that States is an option too. Get a cheap flight to the East Coast and transfer there. Bermuda-bound airlines include American Airlines, Continental, Delta, US Airways and low-cost carrier JetBlue.
Zagreb in Croatia will have a direct air link from the UK from the end of the month, when Wizz Air takes off from Luton Airport. Tony Kelly in The Times has the lowdown on the charming city with a Mediterranean attitude. Kelly warns that the "English football team will be playing there on October 11 — so go now before the stag parties and football fans arrive". It's a tempting proposition.
© Cheapflights Ltd Oonagh Shiel
