p18 Columnist feb27 24/2/09 17:51 Page 18
news comment
ttglive.com
Kane Pirie Travel Republic
“After 24 hours on euro prices,
I assumed we must have been
mugged, or bought something
expensive – like a small car”
B
each holidays are sometimes around with a coffee and watching the world
portrayed as being about as chic bustle by. It’s not cheap, though.
as a Ford Capri and just as dated. After 24 hours on Parisian euro prices, I as-
The fashionable types of holiday sumed we must have been mugged or bought
are pretty much anything but the familiar something expensive that I had subsequently
week or two on foreign shores. forgotten — such as a small car.
Inadvertently, I have recently experimented It took me back to my student days, trying to
with some classic non-beach holidays. We had solve the mystery of the missing money. In fact,
the environmentally friendly camping trip to we had just spent it.
Snowdonia. This involved a series of shopping Of course, beach holidays also present
excursions in advance to secure our tent and challenges. Not least, surviving the
other “essential” expedition equipment. airport ordeal without exploding in
I have enjoyed camping in the past, frustration at the endless queues
but this lakeside site was blighted by a and procedures you have to clear.
blizzard of irritating little flies that However, once you arrive, you
seemed to subsist on eating generally get what you paid for —
people’s faces. blue skies, sunshine, the novelty of
Next was a short a different country and time to relax
break to the west away from the pressures at home.
country and the This is why, for many people, beach
comparative lux- holidays are an essential. They are
ury of a hotel. part of a national coping strategy — a
But it was over- defence against stress-induced insanity.
heated, over- I actually enjoyed all my recent
priced and holidays and do not regard one type as
overly formal. The “better” than another. I do think it is odd,
food was an embarrass- though, that many of the great and the good
ment and the whole place in the travel industry are openly so snobby
looked tatty. Boringly, in Clone about the beach holiday market and see it
Town Britain, the shops and as some sort of poor relation. I prefer to see
restaurants were the same as at them as a fun aspect of the British way of
home. And it rained. life and part of the healthy balanced diet
The latest adventure was a of holidays your doctor would recommend.
long weekend in Paris, where
choices abound, from getting Kane Pirie is managing director of
lost in the Louvre to lounging Travel Republic
18 27.02.2009
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76