Following a messy break-up from a longtime loser, there was only one thing for it-a good old girly holiday with my best mate. I scoured the net and trawled through websites such as 'teletextholidays.co.uk' and 'lastminute.com' and found a couple of last minute offers which caught my eye. Cutting a long story somewhat shorter, I settled for a week-long getaway to somewhere in the Costa del Sol.
Somewhere in the Costadel Sol? ************************************ Now I say 'somewhere' within the Costa del Sol because my friend and I decided, perhaps rather foolishly (I prefer adventurously) to book an 'Allocation on arrival' holiday. The term means exactly that; although we were guaranteed at least a 2* hotel, the location would not be revealed until we got off the plane. We did tell the travel agent that we would like a place either in Marbella or Malaga but they could only put in a 'good word' as such.
Booking and Getting Our Tickets *********************************** I booked the holiday literally the day before we left (called
on Wednesday and went on Thursday) and as a result, our tickets didn't get sent to us but were ready at the 'Airtours' desk at Gatwick Airport.
Somewhat confusingly, 'Airtours' had decided to change their name to 'My Travel' so we spent a good 20minutes looking for a desk and sign that simply weren't there. But once we did the lady at the desk was very polite and courteous and, much to our relief, handed over our tickets to a week of hedonism. All the details on the tickets were correct and the flight times hadn't been changed thus so far, so good.
Checking In ************** Why is it that the queue you find yourself in is always, without fail, the slowest? In our case, there was only 1 queue for the 'Airtours/My Travel' holidaymakers travelling to Malaga hence check in was a painstakingly slow process.
The Plane *********** Everywhere we looked the old 'Airtours' logos had been replaced by the similarly dodgy 'My Travel' signs and the plane which took us to Malaga was no exception.
The plane was clean and English seemed to be the only language spoken on board and it really was the first time I'd ever been on a plane where 99% of the passengers were brits! The flight was slightly delayed due to bad weather in Dublin or something (remember I'm in Gatwick so perhaps the winds blew exceptionally far...) and there was some horrible turbulance but thank God, we arrived safe and sound in Malaga.
What next? ************ Going through passport control, it suddenly hit me that we still didn't know where we'd be sleeping tonight. Would we be in one of those hotels reminiscent of the 'Holiday from Hell' programmes? We crossed just about everything that we possibly could and waited as calmly as we could.
As soon as we passed the checkpoints, there was the man I'd been waiting for...the 'Airtours' man! Smiley and way too cheerful for 2am, he took our names and handed us a white envelope before carting us off to the coaches outside. The transfers were included in the price of our holiday so all we had to do was sit and wait. I opened up the envelope which had some leaflets about the holiday operator and also some vague information about the hotel we'd be staying in.
As you can imagine, pretty much everyone on our coach was feeling pretty shattered as it was fast approaching 3am but the rep on our bus didn't seem to notice. Like a Duracell bunny she tried to rouse us all from our quasi-slumbers and get us all to cheer like 4 year olds. Oh dear. I think she felt our lack of enthusiasm.
The Hotel *********** There were 2 designated stops en route to our hotel where several holidaymakers got off to their places. However, as we seemed to get further and further away from Benalmadena and Fuengirola I started to worry. I wished they'd just drop us off at any of the hotels we were fast-passing because the sea was getting farther and farther away...
Eventually, we did get to our hotel and, to my dismay, its location was not exactly what you'd call local. Well not even periferal really. Lets cut to the chase; it was in the middle of nowhere. Arrrrrghh. However, you could see the sea from our balcony.
The hotel itself was fantastic however. It was a 4* (remember I said Allocation on Arrival would give at least a 2*!) so we got lucky in that sense. Marble covered every floor and there was both an outdoor and indoor pool together with sunbathing areas for those not brave enough to venture beyond the hotel's confines.
So, a case of 'you win some, you lose some' with this hotel. The establishment itself was beautiful but the location meant you really did need a car to get around.
Our Holiday Rep ******************* From my experience, the holiday rep is a species of its own. Our man was cheerful to no end; to the point where I seriously considered ramming my flip-flop up his @%*& lolol but to be fair, he was very helpful. He gave us details about excursions etc and also about bus info etc etc and getting around the local area and was available at certain times everyday for any queries holidaymakers may have had. There was an 'Airtours' holiday book and a designated room with all the departure info aswell for further information.
General bits ************** We were very lucky in that nothing (touch wood) went wrong during our time away which meant that we didn't really have much to do with 'Airtours' as such however the only gripe I had with them was the delayed arrival of our return coach. There seemed to be a cock-up along the way to our hotel and we were lucky to make it to Malaga airport on time.
The flights weren't delayed excessively going there or back and all the 'Airtours' staff were courteous throughout.
Conclusion ************* Whether or not you have a good holiday is often down to luck more than anything but on this occasion, I can say that 'Airtours' did a good job. They gave us our tickets as promised and didn't give us a shabby looking shack to stay in either. The reps looked after us and were always willing to help out with any problems. There have been many holiday distasters and 'Airtours' have no doubt contributed to a fair few in their time but in this case, I have nothing but praise for the company. I would consider booking a holiday with them again but I'd probably book a named hotel this time...
Have never liked the idea of allocation on arrival. Always seems like too much of a gamble. Rich
rishmitra 23.09.2004 14:11
SO you say Airtours is good. Good review. Best wishes, Rish
COOOEEE 23.09.2004 09:34
Not sure if you asked as I have been away but I have included this in the Ciao Travel Agencies & Tour Operators competition for September. Good luck. Fionaxx
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Advantages: Staff try their best in a bad situation, its just a shame about the company they work for, and the flights are cheap (you get what you pay for) Disadvantages: Too many to list!
Sep 14th, 2004
(Sep 15th, 2004)
very helpful by (100%):
