My parents are going down to London to visit my brother in September and they have asked me to have a look at how much it would cost. I started by looking on thetrainline.com as I guessed that a train journey would be the cheapest option. My parents live in Glasgow so I typed in the from and to information as well as the date. It took a couple of seconds to show me the price and I was shocked, £116 each and it took 5 and a half hours!

I decided that I would try a domestic flight instead and went to the BMI website as I have flown with them before and they were cheap. I typed in the information again and pushed the Get Flights button and waited a few seconds. The outbound flight cost £32.50 and the return flight cost £37.50, meaning a grand total of £70 each; that’s a saving of £46 each and it only takes 1 hour and 20 minutes.

I don’t know where the train companies get their pricing from, but if you want to travel from Glasgow to London then a cheap flight will save you not just money but time as well.

My nephew is being christened at the end of August and it gives our family the chance to go down to London for the weekend! Having grown up near London during my childhood I have been to London quite a few times, but my wife has only been once and the kids have never been, so a bit of sightseeing is in order.

The christening starts at midday on the Sunday so I plan to get down to London on the Friday night and then do some sightseeing on the Saturday. I’ve had a quick look for hotels in London, and because the christening is in Clapham it should be easy enough to get to the centre of London with kids in tow.

London hotels aren’t as expensive as you think either, starting from around £75 per night for a family room and should be ideal for what we need it for. It should be pretty interesting for the kids too and will give them something to talk about with their friends when they get back.

Having been quite lax at booking a family holiday this summer it’s all hands on deck as me and my wife decide where we want to go. We both fancy somewhere hot as we are going on a skiing holiday later in the year, with the south of Spain or Canary Islands.

We normally do self catering holidays, but this year I quite like the idea of renting a holiday apartment or villa; this would give us the scope to do whatever we want during the day without being tied to certain meal times.

Wherever we end up I also want to rent a car as we like to explore our surroundings and visit different places on our travels. It’s also easier to rent a car when you have two children, as transfers from the airport to the apartment could take a couple of hours.

We will hopefully have somewhere booked by the end of the week and I will let you know what we choose.

My sister called me last night and asked if we would like to join her family when they go skiing in the winter. Being an avid skier myself when I was younger I haven’t been on a ski holiday since before the kids were born, and now that they are old enough (9 and 11) it’s a great reason to go.

Me and my wife have been skiing before, but the kids will need to take lessons, luckily there is an indoor ski slope near to where we live that has dedicated lessons for kids and beginners alike. The kids are pretty excited and I have booked their lessons for the end of this month.

It will also give me and my wife the chance to practice skiing as I feel that I might be a bit rusty.

I can’t wait to book our skiing holiday, hopefully we will be able to book into a decent resort for cheap and fingers crossed that the weather is good for skiing.

I’ve been looking into ski holidays and finally got our 2nd honeymoon booked, i was looking at this back in November, but only just managed to pull my finger out and get the holiday booked. After lots of looking round I’ve decided to go to Whistler in Canada. I love the buildings in Whistler there’s just something about grey coloured stone buildings with timber on the outside and trusses for the roof.

We are flying into Vancouver which is one of the closest airports, but it’s still a 2hr journey to get there from the airport. I’ve been on Google and had a look at the route using the street view, and it’s not a rickety old road like I thought it would be, it looks like quite a well maintained road duel carriage way in parts and normal A road in others.

We have hired a car to get from the airport to Whistler then we are free to stop and have a tea break if we like and take a few snaps. Now I’ve been left in charge of actually booking the car. Now I’ve booked a class e car which means either a Dodge charger, Chevrolet Impala and a Pontiac Grand Prix. Now I’m hoping for a Dodge Charger, I’m really hoping for a 69 muscle car charger, but I’ll probably end up with a lame 2010 Charger.

We’re only going for a week due to the extra cost of going the further distance but I think I’ve got my head around this ski deals thing now and will book 2 weeks for next time.

These are two great areas for ski holidays. Villard is in the south east of France, close to Italy, this resort is great for intermediate skiers; half the slopes are for skiers at that level of skill. They have one-quarter slopes for beginners, and the rest are advanced (single black diamond).  There are six airports less than two hours from the region, so getting there is simple.
 
The resort doesn’t have gondolas or trams, just 28 lifts. If you like snowboarding, the resort provides teachers and a snowboard fun park. Above the village is the Cote 2000 Ski Centre; it has easy access to the slopes. No matter what the temperature the slopes are nearly always covered; the area also has snowmaking machines.

The town has some great nightlife available with two excellent clubs.  There is also paragliding, a casino, and several other activities for those on ski holidays to enjoy.

As for Albiez, it’s great for snowboarders and intermediate skiers; it’s a picturesque area outside the mainstream of ski holiday resorts and has quite diverse terrain. It has three green runs, 16 blue, six red runs, and one black. In total, there are 128 pistes, and 15 kilometres are cross country runs. The area has snowmakers to keep the slopes covered and 12 ski lifts. By taking the ski lift, you can get up to a height of 7,220 feet. The resort is in France, also close to the Italian border, and the Chambery Airport is very conveniently located, just an hour’s drive away. There’s also a railway station in St. Jean de Maurienne. There are three good hotels are in the area, and five restaurants.

I have been asked to be a friends Best Man, which i don’t mind at all, but what does worry me is the stag night.

Some people are big drinkers some aren’t some like night clubs some don’t. so i’m going to do the Stag night in 2 parts.

Ive decided to go Go Karting in the morning this should be around £35, which i don’t think is to expensive. I was looking at paint balling but i know some people would be put of by the uncertainty of the end cost, so i went for something that had a fixed price and most people should enjoy.

In the evening we are going to head to Leeds for a night out the mini bus is costing around £10 each to take 20 of us which includes pick up at 3 AM.
We are hoping to be in Leeds for around 8 before the carnage begins.

I’m looking at things to make us stand out but not to much. So i’ve been looking at getting some Polo shirts made up by a custom t-shirt printing company.

This is now a mine field that I’m in as some company’s offer free delivery on smaller orders like mine, some don’t give free delivery but offer cheaper polo shirts. A few websites offer a great user interface, making placing nicknames in the right place much easier where as others need you to ring them direct.

I think within a few days i should have the right t shirt printing website chosen and my shirts ordered.

Many people believe that taking a ski holiday at one of the many American ski resorts is out of the question in these difficult financial times, but you should think again as there as some simply terrific ski deals that can be bought if you should decide to ski in America this winter. Some of the bigger tour operators are offering very affordable ski holidays which naturally include flights as well as transfers to your resort. When you do arrive after your transatlantic flight you will find acres of wide open tree lined pistes which are un-crowded and, something that Alpine skiers do not experience, that is no queues at the lifts. That in itself is almost worth the transatlantic flight! What you will be sure of is the reliability of the snow, coupled with service from restaurant staff and hoteliers at a level unheard of in Europe.

What you can expect in Utah is an average snow fall of over 42 feet with snow that is light and dry, described as “fluffy” fantastic for off piste work! Utah is home to 13 ski resorts most of which are less than an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City which can offer a great base for the resorts, with Park City being very family friendly and Deer Valley exclusive.

Colorado is home to some great skiing, names like Breckenridge come to mind with glitzy Aspen, Vail and Beaver Creek within 100 miles of each other offering luxury, service and world class skiing. The downside of these resorts has to be the cost of the ski pass, but you do get something in return apart from a lift up the mountain. You will expect and get immaculately groomed trails, resort guides called “ambassadors” to show you around the slopes, with complimentary sun cream, biscuits or “cookies” and drinks, combined with a very slick and efficient lift system, with as we have said, hardly a soul waiting. Check out the great ski deals with flights from London and most regional airports and get to America for a different skiing experience.

There is a hidden secret for skiers in the country of Slovakia at the ski resort of Jasna which lies in the western part of the Carpathian Mountains, Tatra, is most likely one of the least known Central European mountain ranges. However, the peaks in the Tatra Mountains are the highest ones between the Alps and the Caucasus.

You might ask why one would go to Slovakia for skiing when the better known Alpine resorts are the place where most skiers head for? No one would claim that it compares with “Espace Killy” or the “Three Valleys”, but there are factors that still make the trip worthwhile and these include the important fact that at the moment anyway, it is a low cost resort with good accommodation, which are all family friendly, ideal for the kids. The snow is good too, of course there can be no guarantee anywhere, but being about a thousand-kilometre distance to any sea coast it can make for a very dry and enjoyable atmosphere, a sort of inland kind of snow that is usually found in places like Colorado in the USA.

Slovakia has a rich culture and should you decide to take a day off skiing, or the weather turns against you, there are plenty of other activities that you can take part in, for instance how about relaxing your body in one of the many spas found in the area, which is also a very popular après ski activity. There is a choice, anything from family-type spa centres to open-air natural spas. The nearby town of Besenová has an open-air spa centre. It is really a cool thing to bathe in hot thermal water in cold winter air, under the stars and the nearby dark mountain peaks. Check out the fantastic ski deals that are available for a low cost skiing holiday in Slovakia.

I know I’ve already been looking into a family ski holiday (see below), but it is my 20th wedding anniversary next year and want to go on a sort of second honeymoon just me and my wife. I had thought about a cruise and whilst checking out some cruise deals I found the Oasis of the Seas cruise ship. This is the largest cruise liner in the world and is nearly 40% bigger than the current biggest cruise ship.

The ship takes its maiden voyage on the 5th of December 2009 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is what I found out about the ship so far:

The ship itself is a marvel of modern engineering, weighing in at over 225,000 tones and measuring nearly 1,200ft long. The ship can hold up to 5,400 passengers and 900 crew, boasts 16 decks full of state of the art facilities including 24 restaurants and bars, boutiques and an ice rink as well as a ‘central park’ featuring 12,000 plants and 56 trees, a casino, a mini golf course and 4 swimming pools.

There is also a 750 seat theatre on board, aptly named the AquaTheater, which is modelled on the ancient Greek amphitheatre. There is a range of cabin options including loft apartment state rooms and cabins with either a sea view or view over the central park.

Virgin Holiday Cruises are doing a great deal at the moment, with 14 night cruises on the Oasis of the Seas from just £999 until November the 25th. Now if that doesn’t wet your appetite for a cruise holiday then nothing will.

I have to say that I’m tempted to book it now (our anniversary is in October next year), giving me plenty of time to save, but I will have to ask the wife first