Sun holidays

Having been on three Sun Holidays now, and waiting for the details of the next holiday to arrive, I just have to tell you about the wonderful times that we have had, for the small effort of collecting 8 tokens from the Sun Newspaper.

With any holidays like these, one has to be very open minded, hiring a car definately helps, as the sites can be some distance from any town, and not minding driving on the right hand side in the European ...
...displays of lovely Japanese Kimonos, Sun shades and Pictures,
They put on dances twice a day.
My favourite place , however was the Museum of Perfume, which housed an amazing number of Perfume bottles. Too numerous to count, but three floors of glass display cabinets from floor almost to ceiling. . From the first invention back in Egyption days to the most modern up to date ones sold even now.
A couple of guided tours to the ... more

Having been on three Sun Holidays now, and waiting for the details of the next holiday to arrive, I just have to tell you about the wonderful times that we have had, for the small effort of collecting 8 tokens from the Sun Newspaper.

With any holidays like these, one has to be very open minded, hiring a car definately helps, as the sites can be some distance from any town, and not minding driving on the right hand side in the European countries, and some are certainly some distance from the nearest airport.

We always prefer the European holidays, there is more chance of good weather.
As soon as your details have come through, and you know your destination, (you have to list a choice of 5. followed by a choice of 5 dates) you can start looking for appropiate means of travel.
Here, the best way is on the internet.

If your holiday is in the U.K. and you prefer to drive, then your problem is solved. By train or coach is the other alternative.
The coach at the moment is the best choice as the still offer £1.00 fares or £5.00 fares depending on destinations. They also have special offers to the main airports.
There are two options when booking, especially with flights inland or European. You can book very early when prices are really cheap, I prefer this, or you can wait til the last minute and chance a late cheap option..... Either way the internet is less complicated and cheaper than booking other ways.

If you don't have a computer, this needn't be a problem, as the local library usually have several, and offer help at some of them, or you could pop into your local Internet Cafe. There is usually someone in there who will be happy to help you.

Arriving at your destination you will be met by teams of very helpful friendly representatives. Well they should be happy shouldn't they? They are on holiday for the whole season.
The work they do is really quite fun, unless they get the occassional grumpy holidaymaker.

Now, about our holidays with the Sun. I really must tell you because we have had some wonderful ones. Which is the whole objective of telling this tale in the form of a review.

Messange (Vieux Port.)France.

The first holiday was to the West Coast of France. Messange Camping site. (Vieux Port.) We had a large tent, but would have prefered a Caravan. The tent had a kitchen, lounge and sleeping centre. All cooking facilities with everything needed for the stay.

We travelled from Plymouth to Santander which is approximately 24 hours. With a cabin to sleep in overnight the journey went swiftly. The Ferry was extremely well fitted with shops restaurants, and play areas for the children, while in the evening there was a cinema or entertainment. From the side of the boat we were able to watch dolphins as we arrived in the Bay of Santander.

We picked up our hire car on arrival in Santander and drove along the coast towards Bilbao stopping for a meal and Bed and board in a lovely little town of Zarautz...
Travelling on the next morning through the wonderful Spanish Mountains we arrived at lunchtime at Biarritz where we had lunch on the beach. We loved this little town and vowed to return...

Vieux Port was a great family camping site. with tents and caravans amongst the tall pine trees, with sand-dunes wafting in for miles amongst the trees from a lovely sandy beach, in a totally natural setting with very few holiday makers.
Our trips around included a couple of great villages Hossegor and Cap Breton. Both places beautiful enough to retire to.
Lordes was stunning. High up in the mountains amidst tall trees and wonderful valleys. We saw the caves at the top of the mountain, and returned suitably tired after a full day.
Overall a fantastic holiday.

Our second holiday was totally different. A car trip to North Wales. and wow was this one spectacular. The site, an activity centre, was situated between Porthmadog and Pwlheli, the weather was good, but the drive there really long. The apartment was clean and tidy, but quite small for 4 of us. I would describe it as passable. The site itself was really good and I can highly recomend it. Based in a really large area, there was some walking to do, but we did not feel hemmed in and plenty of play areas for the children..
Most days we went sight seeing, and loved every minute. Not too much rain, and warm.
Our favourite trip was to Portmerrion, famous for its China and the T.V series The Prisoner..and is strange large white rubber ball!!!
...It is a must to visit if you can. Beautiful houses of crazy dimentions built into a ravine. We all came back with bargain priced china as gifts for the family.

A trip to Snowdon had the most spectacular views. with stopping areas for viewing all the way up. A little town with gift shops, boat rides and a visit to a slate mill and quarry at Llanberis which very informative, and a trip to a local airport finished the holiday on a grand note.
We stopped in Hay-on-Wye on the way back, staying overnight to continue the following day after a visit to the famous book shops,
the first time we had been there and enjoyed it immensly.

The last holiday we had could not be better if we tried. We collected the tokens, sent them off with a choice of Brittainy, South of France, or Spain. Picking sites at ramdom as none of the areas were places we had visited before. A few days lated back came the vertict. A week in Baume near Frejus, on the Cote de A.zure......a week in May...picked at ramdon.

This time we flew via Bristol airport to Nice. Booking a hire car at the same time for a very reasonable price. Again cheap flights booked well in advance.

We arrived at mid-day and continued down the coast to Frejus. Not knowing what to expect. The campsite was excellent. 3 bedrooms in a very modern caravan on a lovely site, three swimming pools, a super restuarant, and really good evening entertainment. Incredibly friendly reps, and no problems here at all.

Our trips out were just coincidence. Why? Well the week we had picked for us, was the week of the Grand Prix in Monaco.
A coach trip direct from Eurocamp was arranged for the Thursday Practice Drive. We booked straight away! and wow was this trip great, the reps positioned us in the grounds of the Monaco Castle with soldiers on guard, large cannons and piles of cannon balls displayed. we overlooked the famous corner at the bottom of the run.

The second coincidence was the Grasse Perfume Festival on the Saturday and Sunday. The festival was the Japanese Rose Festival. There were stands everywhere full of plants especially roses. Crafts, perfumes and jams.
The town hall had displays of lovely Japanese Kimonos, Sun shades and Pictures,
They put on dances twice a day.
My favourite place , however was the Museum of Perfume, which housed an amazing number of Perfume bottles. Too numerous to count, but three floors of glass display cabinets from floor almost to ceiling. . From the first invention back in Egyption days to the most modern up to date ones sold even now.
A couple of guided tours to the old perfume factories, still working, finished the day.

The following day we returned for more. But continued on from Grasse to a perfumed sweet factory, where all our presents were purchased for our family at home.
The day was glorious so we went on still further up into the mountain driving inland until we came to a Medival village, built into the side of the mountain, here people still lived, the insides of their cave houses just roughly shaped walls of rock and mud. The narrow streets only suitable for walkers, who braved the very steep hills down the mountain side. Several of the little cave houses had been turned into super modern gift shops.

A gentleman sitting on the front step of his house invited us in, he was in his eighties and had previously travelled the world.
His present home a museum of his visits, entwined with plants creeping in from the balcony, overlooking the ravine, into the house and up the stairs. We felt very honoured.

We had arrranged with our reps to stay another five days, making it a 10 day holiday, you can do this at a price. We felt it was worth it.

Third coincidence, was the coach trip to the Cannes film festival, with a guaranteed front row road position, within view of the famous red carpet. How could we resist an offer like this.? The weather was cold, the evening was overcast, but the atmosphere was electric. So many famous faces passing us by in their grand limousines. A large screen displayed the views we couldn't see first hand. Carousels and rides entertained the children.

Finally we took a drive into the mountains to visit the Gorges of Verdon. ( known locally as the Grande Canyon of France.)
Well I can't describe this really, it was so beautiful, so awe inspiring and terrifying all at the same time, on to an enormouse lake and home via all the lavender fields.

After all this in one week, I still haven't told you about the harbour of Frejus, you can go online and see a tour, you will love it. The beaches a sandy and sheltered bays, and just south along the coast road is St Tropez. We stopped at Port Grimaud while there, with its houses built onto man made canals, their boats parked just by, ready to sail. Moving from street to street was accessed by little bridges.

I would like to end this review with a thankyou to Sun Holidays for the most wonderful holidays from them.

Only one holiday was not so good, In Torquay, the campsite was a disaster. I love the town of Torquay so we spent each day with the children there and only came home to our van at night. A van upgraded because the first we were given was not fit for living in.
Oh well you can;t win them all.!!!

If the tokens and choices are not available, the Sun send you the tokens and cheque back with a book early next time form, without having to collect more tokens. I was surprised at this, and very pleased.

Hopefully in the next few days I will have a letter to say if I am going to Amsterdam, Dunrell. or Sardinia. I will let you know.

Thankyou so much for reading to the end of this very long reveiw,
but to my mind it deserved every word. I hope you think so too!

my best wishes to you all. Elinor.

 

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