Jet2 / AirTanker A330-200, G-VYGL

Back in the late 1800's, 'habitual drunkards' (as they were legally defined in the UK), were not only banned from most pubs in the parish, they would also have been legally barred from drinking alcohol at all.  Alcohol fuelled trouble, by a surprisingly equal number of men and women, was a problem.  

The Manchester - Gran Canaria route is fiercely fought over by no fewer than four airlines (Ryanair, Jet2, easyJet and TUI).  Ryanair is usually cheapest and it has a great product offering.  So when an opportunity arose to get some winter sun in January for just £25, who was I to refuse!

A YouTube video review of this experience is also available here.

As an almost monthly visitor to the Canary Islands and keen traveller, I'm always looking for new flights to try out.  There's nothing wrong with the airlines that I usually use to the Canaries such as easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair or British Airways.  But, I do appreciate a novel flight when I find one and there's nothing more novel these days than finding a short haul widebody Boeing 767 flight, an aircraft I flew on regularly as a child.  Cue TUI Airways UK Ltd, the UK airline of German leisure giant TUI AG.

Sky Express is one of a new generation of low cost airlines in Europe that are trying to be different from the ultra low cost model such as that provided by Ryanair, whilst not charging the premium prices and draconian rules of the traditional flag carrier.  

My first trip back to the Canaries post-Covid was to Tenerife, naturally!

Having spent a great few days in Germany test driving a Tesla, it was time to return home.  Oddly, the cheapest fare that I could find from Berlin to Manchester was with Lufthansa via Frankfurt.  Even my usual airline on this route, easyJet, was more expensive and at the time, easyJet was suffering network-wide short notice cancellations - so I wasn't really minded to book with easyJet this time anyway.

My very last flight shortly before the world went into lockdown in early 2020 was with Austrian Airlines from Vienna to Heathrow in business class.  At the time, as you can see from the video that I made, I declared that flight "the best Euro business class experience I've ever had".  I had feedback on that comment!

I travelled from Ibiza in the Balearic Islands to London City Airport in April 2022 to once again check out BA CityFlyer's Business Class service.  CityFlyer is British Airways' wholly owned and London City Airport-based regional airline that primarily serves the needs of business travellers flying between London City and Europe's main financial capitals, using a fleet of Embraer 190's.

If I came running up to you excitedly proclaiming I've found this great, modern, luxury hotel at Heathrow, you'd probably think I'd be either lying, gone mad, or both..and you'd be right..

In the second of my  series on Heathrow Marriott hotels, I bring you the Courtyard by Marriott.  Regular readers will know that I'm currently reviewing all of the Marriott properties in and around Heathrow as both a regular Heathrow visitor and currently chasing the sweet spot of Marriott's 'Bonvoy' loyalty scheme, Platinum.  In the first of my Marriott reviews, we looked at the ultra-trendy and ultra-bizarre Moxy Hotel on Bath Road.  Today, we take a step up in the Marriott chain to their Courtyard brand, which sits in their 'Select' range.  Marriott has over 30 brands and each brand falls into a category 'Luxury, Select, Longer Stays or Collections'.  Think of Select as the brand that hoover's up any budget to lower mid-scale establishment.

Quiz question - how many brands does Marriott have?

Anyone who has ever stayed in any Canarian hotel will know that getting good service and a nice, modern, functioning room can be challenging.  This week I stayed at the sprawling 584 room, 5-star H10 Rubicon Palace in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.  Sadly, it was not good.

Let's get the boring bits out of the way first, before I tell you about this hotel.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" said Micheal Corleone (Al Pacino) of his attempt to leave the Italian Mafia in the hit movie The Godfather III.

Does a leopard change its spots?  Well, when it comes to the recently crowned Anthelia Iberostar Selection hotel, absolutely!

"Quiet gets the job done", according to my old boss who always insisted on taking two weeks a year vacation here in La Gomera, one of the most sparse, least populated islands in the Canaries.

"Where are you?" asked my literary agent a few weeks ago.  Much to his surprise, I told him I was in Gran Canaria, neighbouring island to my favourite, Tenerife.  He retorted "but you always go to Tenerife.  Has Tenerife run out of five star hotels or is the island just full?".  He jests of course (and knows me better than I'm comfortable with).  As part of writing a book, in my case of course, on the topic of the Canary Islands, you inevitably bump into literary agents along the way.  They're great, most of the time, but like my YouTube channel sponsors, can be demanding - but come good when they get your masterpiece onto the shelves of WHSmith. 

In the forty or so years that I've been a regular visitor to the Canary Islands ("you should go live there!") a number of things have changed.  Businesses come and go, as do the hotels, although the latter less frequently and it's usually the low end hotels that end up closing when their owners decide they're too old to do anything with.

The year was 1730.  Huge fireball eruptions spewed burning hot lava all across the Atlantic Ocean.  This went on for a good six years, experts believe.  What was left is what we see today, a popular holiday resort just off the coast of the African continent.  But your average holiday in Puerto del Carmen isn't why I'm writing this article.  No, the reason for this article is in fact because I have a passion - and it's for finding really interesting tourist spots to hit up.  And if you're in Lanzarote, this is about as hot as it gets!

1975 was quite an extraordinary year.  Why?  Well, for starters, that's when yours truly arrived on planet Earth.  It was also the year that a certain German businessman walked away from this true monstrosity in Acoran, near Santa Cruz, in Tenerife.  

The town of Taurito is stunning.  It's a bay which has been built up as a tourist resort, with most hotels built into the hills on both sides.  The abandoned hotel Taurito is no exception, having been built, or at least intended to be built into the eastern hillside.

If you love a mystery and love a good old Urbex, then this is a must see when you're in Lanzarote.  For a walking tour of the hotel, head over the video I made of the seven wonders of Lanzarote but for the time being, let's take a look around whilst you're here.

When the cause of leprosy was first identified in 1873, up to that point, nobody had a clue what caused it, how it was transmitted and more importantly, how to deal with it. 

"To know me is to fly with me", said Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), in the 2009 film Up In The Air, about a travelling 'down sizer' who, inbetween firing people for a living, spent a great deal of his life in hotels and flying.

The Hotel Neptuno is one of the more typical Urbex type abandoned places to see on the island. When it closed in 2007, it had fallen into disrepair and was no longer favourable given the explosive growth of newer resorts in the south that were simply easier to get to.  

If you've ever seen the film 'E.T.' (and who hasn't), you'll know that Planet Earth needs a way to communicate with whatever alien life form exists out there in the universe.  Such a device would require huge processing power - certainly more than the Speak and Spell featured in the film.  

Not long ago, if you wanted take away food you’d have to get up off your sofa, miss the best bits of Emmerdale Farm, get in the car and drive to whatever flavour took your fancy..then along came the gig economy and with it Deliveroo, Just Eat and a whole host of middle-man companies linking drivers to takeaways.  Uber, with its established app based taxi on demand service, broke into the market and called it Uber Eats.  

A fleet of Superpedestrian e-scooters parked up in Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote

Entrance to the sparkly new Schiphol Oneworld lounge

For several years now, easyJet, one of the largest low cost airlines in Europe, has offered two frequent flyer schemes.  I thought it was time to review the benefits of both because a) one of the schemes isn't that well known and b) in 2023, easyJet dealt a big blow to (what I think) was one of the best flight packages you could buy, ironically making easyJet Plus even more valuable

As a child, I was mesmerised by James Bond movies, particularly the ones like Moonraker, which were all about space exploration - I even had evil tendencies like Hugo Drax, wanting to set up a flying human stud farm and own an entire solar system!  

**WARNING, this article contains discussion about nudity, which is perfectly legal in Spain and many other countries around the world, but which may cause offence to some readers**

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When Christopher Columbus discovered the Canary Islands in 1492, way before the Spanish conquered the islands, little did he know that in about 500 years time, a blogger who loves the Canaries as much as he found them interesting, would turn up in a Fiat 500, just as curious about the islands as he was.

Tech companies like Apple often launch products with huge fanfare but too often these days disappoint, in what is now a saturated market for many products.  Even as a lifelong Apple 'fanboy', I must confess to buying alternative earphones this year because despite the 'amazing' new AirPods, I couldn't help but think "these are the same design as last year, and the year before that, and in fact the same design as when they were launched back in 2016".

The Tesla Model 3 that I hired in Berlin, Germany

As a ten year old boy, flying anywhere was exciting.  This was the mid 80's and few people flew anywhere more than once a year.  Our main holiday as a family revolved around one of two alternating destinations: the Balearic Islands or Canary Islands, both Spanish-owned territory but relatively autonomous in how they were run day to day. 

Tony Blair lasted for the next ten years.  Boris Johnson was less fortunate.