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Happy Eva after in Algarve

24th January 202324th January 2023 funtime65

She was a restless spirit, a TV health expert with wanderlust whose travel needs were entrusted to me… so I’m glad she’s finally found her Happy Eva after in Algarve.

Straight-talking Dr Eva Orsmond made a name for herself with her honest appraisals of contestants on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation.

But our paths only crossed when il capo di capi, no not the Scary One but the bubble-permed CEO of my company, deigned to seek me out on her behalf.

To ask me to organise a week’s 5* holiday in the sun for her and her mum at four days’ notice… and all gratis.

And yes, it was one of those offers you can’t refuse.

Well, you know what they say about making a rod for your own back.

Moroccan stroll

I called around my contacts and four days later the bould Eva and mum were heading off for Morocco.

Of course, my work wasn’t finished there and I had to call on all my editing skills.

To extract out of her a story for my award-winning Travel section beyond the mechanics of food recycling… her own recycling.

As you know I normally like a challenge.

And I managed to prise out of her the tale of Ireland’s scariest diet doctor and the only woman she reported to… her Mum!

My mercy mission complete I kept my head down in the hope that Eva’s compo holiday would sate her.

And I could get on with the rest of my job.

Eva’s back

Only Eva had a hold on the CEO and I worked for the Man, the Bubble Perm Man.

And so a few months later she came asking again… only my options of France, Spain or Turkey didn’t appeal.

With Eva saying she couldn’t possibly go to one of those (I can’t remember which) because it held unhappy memories for her.

Eva has naturally gone off my radar since returning to Scotland after my 13 years in Ireland.

Next port of call

Only for news to come my way that she has only found a hotspot which she doesn’t need a Travel Mr Fixit to sort.

Her own establishment in Algarve, a place we love, is the Solar Alvura Health Hotel.

The blurb tells us it’s ‘a destination for transformation (channeling her breakout show).

‘The health hotel offers a welcoming environment that enables visitors to unwind, reset, and turn their health aspirations into tangible results.’

And the woman herself says: ‘We believe in creating a relaxed atmosphere at Solar Alvura.

‘Where you can meet like-minded people, experience an array of fun activities, and feel inspired to embrace a healthy lifestyle.’

Fare play

Nestled between the stunning coastline of the Eastern Algarve and Sao Miguel Mountain, Solar Alvura is adults only.

The elegant health hotel located a thirty-minute drive of Faro Airport.

The Solar Alvura Health Hotel will re-open on 10^th February 2023.

And you will be under strict orders to transform yourself when you’re there.

And find your happy Eva after in Algarve.

Fly Ryanair from £26.

Countries, Deals, Europe

Winter abroad to save fuel

30th September 202230th September 2022 funtime65

Turn off the heat, lock the door and winter abroad to save fuel this winter.

Well, we need no second invitation, Click and Go and what Ireland’s online Travel specialists are offering.

We’ll pass over, of course, that they have us down as pensioners as we’re sure this applies just as well for all ages.

A winter’s tale

My old pal and C&G CEO Paul Hackett explains: ‘We have had many clients booking holidays for the winter.

‘Because it’ll be cheaper to be on holidays in Spain in a 4-star hotel than heating their homes in Ireland.

‘These offers are perfect for retirees or for people who are able to work remotely.’

Bully for us: With Sara and The Son and Heir

‘We have incredible deals from November to March in the Algarve, mainland Spain, and Malta.

‘The day to day cost of living in these destinations is much less than Ireland. It is amazing that you can discover a new place while saving.”

With dinner, bed and breakfast from just €40 it isn’t hard to see why.

So click and go…

Three and easy

3 weeks

*Fuengirola in a 4-star hotel, half board, for three weeks from €869pp. Find out more.

*Benalmadena in a 4-star hotel, half board, for three weeks from €949. Find out more.

*Torremolinos in a 4-star hotel, half board, for three weeks from €979pp. Find out more.

Extend your stay for another week from just €280!

Month of sun days

4 weeks

*Fuengirola in a 4-star hotel for four weeks from €1,099pp. Find out more.

*Benaladena in a 4-star hotel for four weeks from €1,229. Find out more.

*Torremolinos in a 4-star hotel for four weeks from €1,259. Find out more.

Prices are per person and include flights and accommodation.

The Click&Go website allows for stays up to 90 day.

So that’s us all sorted and where we want winter abroad to save fuel.

Countries, Culture, Europe

The Swede Life

5th January 20225th January 2022 funtime65

Ah, the Swede Life… again our Scandinavian friends have been recognised as the Happiest Place To Live.

The Global Citizen Solutions’ Quality of Life index shows the Sverige passport heading the top ten for quality of life.

Now this is obviously all good for the Swedes of Swedeland.

And I’m reminded here for context of the travelling Irish Green Army and their chant towards their rival Swedish fans at a past Euros.

To the tune of The Village People’s ‘Go West’.

‘Go home to your gorgeous wives, go home to your gorgeous wives, go home to your gorgeous wives, go home…’

Let’s all move there

And talking about home, Global Citizens Solutions are reminding us here with their survey that Sweden awaits us…

Because their audience here is ex-pats yes, but also international retirees and digital nomads.

So what is it that GCS likes about ABBAland?

Well, the many beautiful landscapes, obvs.

But also its corporate culture that has fully embraced a good work-life balance.

And a country that leads in global development.

The six indicators

Pretty as a picture: And in the kitchen too

The six main indicators considered for the Quality of Life Index are

*Sustainable Development Goals (weighted at 30%)

*Cost of living (weighted at 20%)

*Level of freedom (weighted at 20%)

*Level of happiness (weighted at 10%)

*Environmental performance (weighted at 10%)

*Migrant acceptance (weighted at 10%).

Index of happiness

Flagging up Sweden: And Homer’s a fan too

And Sweden scored 87.2 in the Quality of Life Index.

So in layman’s language that means they’re high in sustainable development, level of freedom, environmental performance (pause for breath).

Happiness levels, and migrant acceptance categories.

Sweden only ranked unfavorably in the cost of living category, which is considered high.

However, the country has relatively high salaries for its population, which increases the cost of living.

The top ten

Now don’t shoot me here, they’re not my findings.

Because here they are in descending order…

1. Sweden

2. Finland

3. Denmark

4. Canada

5. Germany

6. Netherlands

7. New Zealand

8. UK

9. Spain

10. Austria

An expert writes

See, happy: The Swedish Chef from The Muppets

Mapping it out, Patricia Casaburi, Managing Director at GCS, said: ‘From kindergarten, there are 16 months of paid family leave.

‘That can be split between the couple after a new child is born, with free daycare also available.’

And though I’d never complain about rearing my family in Ireland, mmmm?

Over to Patricia again: ‘While most passport rankings focus solely on the number of countries that one can visit visa-free with a certain passport, Global Citizen Solutions believes that a passport’s true value has so much more to offer.’

And wouldn’t that just be Bra (behave… it’s Swedish for good)?

Ah, yes, The Swede Life.

Countries, Culture, Europe

Alpha to Omega of variants and travel

28th November 202128th November 2021 funtime65

Ever wondered why the latest viral threat is called Omicron… well here’s the Alpha to Omega of variants and travel.

We have the World Health Organisation to thank for improving our Greek… and Zeus knows I’ve forgotten almost all my Classical Greek from school.

And anything that shines a light on Heroic Hellas and its culture has my vote.

The WHO plumped for the naming system so as to remove stigma from countries after the media jumped on the first Covid variant.

And our news gatherers lazily called it the South African variant.

Now we here at TravelTravelTravel being internationalists fully support their motives, particularly because jingoism and racism can run as wild as pandemics.

And it is to the Greeks that we have turned for wisdom and philosophy.

Lay off the Spanish

With queen of Spain Teresa, Eoghan Corry and Sharon Jordan in Dublin

Back in 1918 when the last global pandemic broke out it was tagged the Spanish Flu, the name by which it is still referred.

And this wasn’t because it broke out in the Iberian Peninsula (we still don’t know its origins).

Rather it was because that was where the information first started emanating about the virus.

On account of Spain being neutral in the First World War and its media generously sharing the information.

While, of course, the virus was taking its toll across the world.

And war-concerned countries were killing information at home just as freely as they were needlessly destroying each other.

As it is the first reported death was in the USA but let’s not quibble.

I only say this to set the record straight and correct a historical wrong in favour of my Spanish friends.

And we well know that they have had their own troubles to seek either natural or political as is all too real in one of our favourite Spanish destinations, the Canaries.

And my last port of call in Spain, Tenerife.

Alphabetti spaghetti

Now, Omicron as it’s coming back to me now is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet which means that w’ve had 13 variants.

Delta we all know, and this pesky letter put paid to my trip to Oregon at the last minute…

And led me to pull out of the earlier working assignment to Las Vegas.

But beta, gamma and epsilon thankfully passed us by.

As did their friends zeta, eta and theta… who sound like the intake of a modern-day creche.

The next one barely registered an iota (and yes Greek letters have entered our lexicon before all this pandemic nonsense).

Kappa (no, not an American college sorority), lam(b)da (not a Tex-Mex dance), mu, nu (the other discarded Teletubbies) and Xi (a Chinese dynasty) soon followed unheralded.

Until we got to our Omicron.

Omicron, not Armageddon

And although our leaders are scaring the bejaysus out of his by interchanging Omicron with Armageddon it’s not.

The narrative is that it’s more infectious but haven’t we been told that the vaccines and the boosters are there to protect us.

And is it just me who is cynical.

That at a time when our politicians want to distract us from restricting our liberties the seriousness of Omicron gets ramped up.

And so we in the UK are told that we must now get a PCR test on arrival back in the UK and self-isolate until we get the result.

Which again sounds scary until you realise that we’re all Working From Home now anyway.

Isn’t it about time that we challenged these assumptions.

Particularly as everything our politicians have told us since the pandemic was called has blown up in their faces?

Democracies on trial

Now we might not go as far as Socrates who attacked Greek democracy (roughly translated as power of the people) in favour of meritocracy or elite rule.

But it is well seen that democracies are on trial.

And while it was the legacy of the First World War which all begun with the assassination of a royal in Sarajevo in the Balkans which heralded in the Fascists of the Twenties.

And of course the Wall Street Crash.

But it was also the failure of democracies in a crisis. We have been warned.

The good news

The good news is that there are only another nine Greek letters to go so we should be through all of this soon.

That’s the Alpha to Omega of variants and travel then.

See you on a plane or ship soon.

America, Asia, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, UK

Craig Sera Sera

18th October 2021 funtime65

Craig Sera Sera, that’s a wrap from the 12th Bond.. and he’ll sure miss those exotic missions.

So which countries has 007 visited most, other than England where he works?

Well of the 50 he’s been to, Italia would seem to have been his favourite with the spy having touched down in Il Bel Paese eight times.

Pasta Master

Venice: And let’s catch a gondola back to Padova

Rome, Venice and Como have inevitably been stick-on locations for any filmmaker and international man of mystery.

And this time it’s the European City of Culture for 2019, Matera, which is getting its place in the sun this time.

With its houses. built into caves, cobbled streets and high arches a dramatic backdrop for the opening scenes.

And Felice Giorni for Matera with the town’s mayor, Raffaello De Ruggieri, predicting its association with Bond will be worth $20 million to the local economy.

In truth this is probably the highpoint of the movie, and all before the credits and Billie Eilish’s disappointing dirge of a soundtrack.

As Daddy’s Little Girl rightly pointed out the best bits were the locales.

Live and Let Spy

With Britain and America enjoying that much feted special relationship it is unsurprising that The Oo Es of Eh is his next favourite stop-off.

And we particularly enjoy his forays into Florida and its keys… whose pleasures I had to put off on the outbreak of Covid but where I intend to fulfil just as soon as.

Ski another day

Like an Alpine skier: In the Austrian Tyrol

Next up might be less predictable, Austria, but then we have to remember its stunning snowscapes and Bond’s love of winter sports which of course we share.

Although we have never seen him on the slopes of Soll while we have enjoyed skiing alongside some dapper fancied-dressed folks.

And we look forward to seeing a penguin-suited Bond on the piste some time soon.

For Bond anoraks it’s an easy question but which is the only country in a film title?

The spy who came in from the Red

Yes, the old Soviet Union, or Russia as we knew it in shorthand.

And as well as the titular film From Russia With Love, Bond turns up in Fabergeland another three times.

Turkish crossroads

It has been the crossroads for espionage since first the first looked out over each other at either side of the Bosphorus.

And, of course, Istanbul, has been an ideal backdrop for Bond’s adventures… and yours, and mine with three films taking in Turkey’s biggest city.

Three’s a charm

And among those countries where Bond has a trio of visits is Hong Kong, Spain, the Bahamas, Scotland, his homeland and Jamaica where Ian Fleming penned the books.

And the West Indies’ biggest island is where we first fell in love with Bond on the Laughing Waters beach in Ocho Rios.

Or Sean Connery to be more precise, even if you were a red-blooded bloke, you actually wanted to be him.

And be with Ursula Andress.

There was much fuss too about Daniel Craig with his take on coming out of the water, ripped and in a pair of budgie smugglers.

Only thing is a budgie has more charisma.

Craig Sera Sera… whatever will be, will be.

Countries, Deals, Europe

Step into Seville

20th July 202120th July 2021 funtime65

It’s an image we all hold dear of Spain, flamenco dancing, and I would get my fix every year when I would Step into Seville.

My friends Teresa, Maria and Kathryn from the Spanish Tourist Board are legendary in Irish circles for their hospitality.

I’ve ‘run with the bulls’, made pulpo and done the whole Feliz Navidad thing.

And every year the boys from Seville (and girls) would skip into Dublin to put on a very special dancing display.

Flamenco moves

Of flamenco in the lofty surroundings of Trinity College Dublin.

With our favourite Balearics being messed about on the traffic light system our attentions have switched back to the big peninsula on the left.

Our old faithfuls, Travel Department, are all over Spain and are offering an awesome Andalucian adventure.

Columbus city

You’ll be based in Costa de la Luz which is tucked around the corner from the Straits of Gibraltar.

You’ll take a day trip to explore this old Moorish gem with its impressive cathedral, La Giralda tower and the Alcazar Palace.

Seville is from where Christopher Columbus set off for the New World.

And you thought it was Barcelona from the statue of Chris in Las Ramblas, only he is pointing towards Constantine, Algeria.

Drink it in

Well, Chris wasn’t the greatest navigator, he’d gone west to try to find the east and India.

To find out more about the famous Genovese take in the Muelle de las Carabelas

You’ll have earned your vino at the end of all that education and that’s just what you’ll get.

And I’m that my Tres Amigas had that on tap at those famous Seville nights.

Deal me in

September and October will still be warm in the old city and Travel Department have dates for September 6, October 4 and 22. And next March.

Prices from £799pp for seven nights half board.

So join me and step into Seville and Andalucia.

Countries, Culture, Deals, Europe

Phoenicia Malta

27th June 202127th June 2021 funtime65

Peter, our guide, is a mongrel, a citizen of Phoenicia Malta…. with British, Italian, Greek and Arab and other blood mingled in.

Phoenicia, you say? Well, we know it from the Bible.

Ezekial called these post-Canaanites from today’s Lebanon and Syria ‘the princes of the seas’

And they set foot on Cyprus, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, northern Africa (Morocco) and southern Spain.

We see evidence of their impact on the Med in a shipwreck off Gozo, Malta’s little brother.

And in names throughout the archipelago of Malta, Gozo and Comino.

And the Phoenicia Malta hotel which we’re glad to reveal has had a refurb.

The Phoenicia Malta is rightly proud of its 7 and a half acres of gardens which stretch to the walls of capital Valletta.

All of which they transformed from an overgrown mini-golf course and which they will use to cultivate vegetables.

And bring them from garden to plate and treat you too to cookery demonstrations.

The emphasis is on peace and relaxation with stunning views of one of the world’s great harbours.

While you’ll be pampered too in the Deep Nature Spa.

And enjoy the infinity Bastion Pool, its poolside menu, chill-out music and waters warmed by the Maltese sun.

With Malta a flagship destination on the UK’s new green list.

Kirker Holidays are offering a three-night break in August from €799pps including flights, private transfers and accommodation with breakfast.

And Kirker Guide notes and the services of the Kirker concierge.

A week’s stay comes in at €1489pps.

With Malta green-lighted the jewel of the Med is the present, the future and the past all rolled into Phoenicia Malta.