Serendipity, Providenciales

Advantages: Good clear water
Disadvantages: very hot

...Not the normal four S words you might associate with a holiday to Crete but there again we did have our two children sleeping in the same apartment so that might explain the substitution of serendipity. This was our first holiday to Greece so we did not know quite what to expect, we took far more clothes than we needed we even took fold up raincoats (you can see we are used to camping holidays in France). All we really needed was lots of different t-shorts and shorts. The Journey: We flew from Birmingham to Herakilon using an Airtours flight (although the holiday was booked with a small tour operator, Hillwood Holidays). Birmingham airport is quite convenient for us, only 45 mins. from home however I do reckon that it does have good facilities and the check-in procedure went fine. I was a bit wary about flying with Airtours... Read review

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Advantages: Steeped in culture and history, Beautiful equatorial climate , Amazing sights sounds and experiences
Disadvantages: Heat can get oppressive, Water undrinkable - use bottled at all times. Terrorist incident at airport unfortunate, but likely to be a one off.

...Sri Lanka, land of Serendipity, Ceylon. I have always wanted to go to Sri Lanka since seeing Duran Duran on top of Sigirya rock in Save a Prayer. In September 2000 I got my chance. And it was, quite simply, the best holiday I have ever had. No contest. Me and my partner travelled to Sri Lanka for two weeks, with Kuoni, on the “Sri Lankan highlights tour” – One week travelling round and sightseeing, and one week on the beach. Before you go it is necessary to get vaccinations for Typhoid, Hepatitis B and Tetanus. You also need to take malaria tablets, one week before you go and then for another 4 weeks after you get back. (Warning, you get malaria tablets that you must take once per week, and daily tablets for the rest of the time. The weekly tablets are THE most foul things I have ever tasted, so get your water ready... Read review

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Advantages: A little bit beautiful, interesting and friendly
Disadvantages: A little bit unchallenging

...will emerge as this review unfolds. But my main criticism is one that is perhaps more a criticism of me than of Sri Lanka – that it’s a little bit unchallenging, even a little bit bland. Somehow, for all its beauty and charm, I found it made strangely little impact on me, and I’m even not sure I would go back. But probably that’s my fault, not Sri Lanka’s. ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** “Serendipity,” my dictionary tells me, is the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident, derived from the word Serendib, one of Sri Lanka’s former names. We did indeed make many happy discoveries, but I cannot pretend that they were unexpected, nor by accident. We had undertaken some research before departing, and instead of trusting to luck and our own instincts to find our way around as we usually do, we had... Read review

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