Holiday Special

  • Tips for making this summer holiday special

    I?ve been wondering lately about how to spice up a trip to someplace you?ve already visited. Summer holidays are often a return to a favourite beach spot or Mediterranean town, and there?s nothing wrong with doing this, but personally I don?t like holidays that are just carbon copies of a previous one. If you?re returning to a favourite summer destination soon, here are a few tips to make it feel like a completely different holiday. Visit one entirely new place each day.If you?re returning to a favourite summer destination soon, here are a few tips to make it feel like a completely different holiday. Visit one entirely new place each day. This might be a new restaurant for lunch, a new museum for a spot of sightseeing, or to take a bus to a beach you?ve never tried before.

  • Life with the locals

    Get more involved with the life of the locals. Get some tips from locals working in hotels or restaurants, or ask at a tourist office, to find out about local events that aren?t specifically targeted at tourists. This could be a local community centre concert or a play by the town?s theatre group. Even if you don?t speak the language, it?s great to see something different.

  • Find a good book set in your holiday destination

    Find books to read that are set in your destination, and visit some of the specific places they mention. Personally I really love to read novels that are set in the places I?m about to travel to, even though what they describe might not be factual or may not be there any more, it?s still great to imagine the characters actually living in that place.

  • Learn the local language

    But finding some non-fiction travel narrative books that are set there is equally satisfying. Learn some more of the language. If there?s a great spot on coastal Spain that you travel to regularly from summer to summer, seek out someone who?ll help you brush up your Spanish. It?s usually easy to find someone (a university student home for the summer, for example) who?d be keen to do some language exchange ? speak Spanish for half an hour, then English for half an hour, over a coffee or a beer