Madrid was our destination of choice with our European Escapades group, and with what seems to have become a regular feature of these trips we all had slightly different travel plans. Heather and I were flying out from Gatwick on the Thursday evening where we would join Chris, Gail, Simon and Linda who had flown to Madrid earlier than us. John and Rita would join us on the Friday afternoon flying in from Birmingham, but they would be staying for some extra time i...

The Costa Brava area of Spain runs pretty much from the French border to Barcelona and is well known by the resorts of places such as Blanes, Lloret de Mar, Tossa de Mar and Roses. We chose not to stay at any of those 'famous places' but plumped for a place called Sant Feliu de Guixols (or SFG). We had no idea what to expect at SFG, but having looked on Google Maps, and having done a bit of research it didn't seem like the place to get an English breakfast or pa...

This long weekend trip to Spain was possible because Heather had the [mis]fortune of having to work a number of additional hours in Swindon that resulted in us being able to tag three days onto a weekend . . . . so we had nearly a week away! Having done some research the best location we could find in terms of maximising the time away from the UK was Girona in Spain. There was a late flight out on a Friday evening from Birmingham and an early evening flight back...

This is my third visit to Majorca, one of the Spanish Balearic islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and hopefully it will not be the last either as it seems to have just about everything needed for a fabulous holiday including great weather for our week away. Temperatures of low to mid 30s by day, dipping to around 20°c at night was the regular pattern of weather experienced. My first holiday in Majorca was in 1974 and is only really a memory from photographs as I...

There are times when you are landing at an airport, or when taking in the place during those first few miles of driving in your hire car that you think "this has a nice feel" - Menorca was one of those places. Flying in it seemed green and lush (and being a small island that should be expected), the roads were well maintained and lined with dry stone walls - if there were some potholes and some rain you could possibly almost have been at home as there is a certai...