Michelle

My boyfriend and I will be visiting his family in England for
Christmas and want to go somewhere else for a week after Boxing
Day....maybe spend New years somewhere fun. We thought about doing a
snowboarding trip, but everything seems booked or really overpriced.
We could fly somewhere (but we have to go back to the U.S. via
London....as we already booked our flight), or there is the option of
borrowing his Dad's car and driving somewhere. For some reason we are
having a really hard time deciding what to do.....any ideas or
opinions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Mark Hewitt

"Michelle" <> wrote in message
news:...
    > My boyfriend and I will be visiting his family in England for
    > Christmas and want to go somewhere else for a week after Boxing
    > Day....maybe spend New years somewhere fun. We thought about doing a
    > snowboarding trip, but everything seems booked or really overpriced.
    > We could fly somewhere (but we have to go back to the U.S. via
    > London....as we already booked our flight), or there is the option of
    > borrowing his Dad's car and driving somewhere. For some reason we are
    > having a really hard time deciding what to do.....any ideas or
    > opinions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

If you can get tickets then New Years in Edinburgh comes highly recommended.
You could explore some of the rest of Scotland after that, there are also
Ski resorts in Scotland you may be able to go Snow Boarding there!

Bondipom

Originally posted by Michelle

    > My boyfriend and I will be visiting his family in England for

    > Christmas and want to go somewhere else for a week after Boxing

    > Day....maybe spend New years somewhere fun. We thought about doing a

    > snowboarding trip, but everything seems booked or really overpriced.

    > We could fly somewhere (but we have to go back to the U.S. via

    > London....as we already booked our flight), or there is the option of

    > borrowing his Dad's car and driving somewhere. For some reason we are

    > having a really hard time deciding what to do.....any ideas or

    > opinions would be greatly appreciated!!!!



You could drive to the European Ski Fields. A long days driving but you
could go under the tunnel or relax on a ferry. London is the place not
to be in New Year. The biggest UK party is in Edinburgh but you would be
lucky to get accomodation now.

Reid

Following up to Michelle

    >but everything seems booked or really overpriced.

Its a peak price week for obvious reasons. If you decide you want
to go somewhere you will just have to bite the bullet and pay,
but most things that are any good will be already fully booked.
Your best bet might be to stay in London and do things from
there.

Michelle

"Mark Hewitt" <> wrote in message news:<bqo88h$21f$>...

    > If you can get tickets then New Years in Edinburgh comes highly recommended.
    > You could explore some of the rest of Scotland after that, there are also
    > Ski resorts in Scotland you may be able to go Snow Boarding there!

Edinburgh seems like a fun party, I will look into going up to Scotland.

Michelle

Reid <> wrote in message news:<>...
    > Following up to Michelle
    >
    > >but everything seems booked or really overpriced.
    >
    > Its a peak price week for obvious reasons. If you decide you want
    > to go somewhere you will just have to bite the bullet and pay,
    > but most things that are any good will be already fully booked.
    > Your best bet might be to stay in London and do things from
    > there.

Okay, what about flying to Rome for a week?....I know it will be
chilly, but we could check out alot of sites and it won't be swamped
with tourists. Or maybe somewhere in Spain? It's just that my
boyfriend doesn't want to spend the whole trip in England like we
usually do.

Jenn

In article <>,
(Michelle) wrote:

    > Reid <> wrote in message
    > news:<>...
    > > Following up to Michelle
    > >
    > > >but everything seems booked or really overpriced.
    > >
    > > Its a peak price week for obvious reasons. If you decide you want
    > > to go somewhere you will just have to bite the bullet and pay,
    > > but most things that are any good will be already fully booked.
    > > Your best bet might be to stay in London and do things from
    > > there.
    >
    > Okay, what about flying to Rome for a week?....I know it will be
    > chilly, but we could check out alot of sites and it won't be swamped
    > with tourists. Or maybe somewhere in Spain? It's just that my
    > boyfriend doesn't want to spend the whole trip in England like we
    > usually do.

It is so cheap to fly from London to various other spots, I'd just pick
a place that interests you and is connected via Ryan or other cheap
carrier and go -- be sure if you use a cheap carrier to fly back the day
before your trip back out of London -- those carriers basically don't do
anything for you if there is a delay or cancellation or bad weather etc
-- so you don't want to cut it too fine. And even normally reliable
transport can be a problem e.g. this summer our Thalys from Amsterdam to
Paris was 5 hours late after we ran over someone and killed them near
Rotterdam [apparently a suicide] The train was full of people planning
on catching flights out of CDG and thinking they had left plenty of time
for reasonable delay. A number of them missed their flights.

barney

In article <>,
(Michelle) wrote:

    > Okay, what about flying to Rome for a week?....I know it will be
    > chilly, but we could check out alot of sites and it won't be swamped
    > with tourists. Or maybe somewhere in Spain? It's just that my
    > boyfriend doesn't want to spend the whole trip in England like we
    > usually do.

As Jenn says, it's easy.

Take a look at www.ryanair.com (for example) and you'll find lots and lots
of very cheap flights from London to other European destinations. They're
not the most customer-service-oriented airline in the world, their flights
often leave or arrive at inconvenient times, and their airports are often
a distance from the cities they creatively suggest that they serve - but
if you have a week, none of this should matter too much.

You can also get surprisingly cheap flights on more mainstream carriers,
but if you don't have any particular destination in mind, you might as
well just see what's lowest-priced on a budget carrier like Ryanair and go
with that.

Sometimes they do special-offer flights for a euro plus taxes (my brother
claims to have bought one for a *cent*), in which case it's not really the
end of the world, or the credit card, if you book and decide closer to the
time not to travel...

Freeda

    > Take a look at www.ryanair.com (for example) and you'll find lots and lots
    > of very cheap flights from London to other European destinations. They're
    > not the most customer-service-oriented airline in the world, their flights
    > often leave or arrive at inconvenient times, and their airports are often
    > a distance from the cities they creatively suggest that they serve - but
    > if you have a week, none of this should matter too much.
    > You can also get surprisingly cheap flights on more mainstream carriers,
    > but if you don't have any particular destination in mind, you might as
    > well just see what's lowest-priced on a budget carrier like Ryanair and go
    > with that.
    > Sometimes they do special-offer flights for a euro plus taxes (my brother
    > claims to have bought one for a *cent*), in which case it's not really the
    > end of the world, or the credit card, if you book and decide closer to the
    > time not to travel...

I would also add that if you are booking less than a month in advance, you
may find it cheaper to book with a 'proper' airline. BMI usually has cheap
fares to a number of destinations in Europe www.flybmi.com also check Air
France www.airfrance.com I've picked up a few last minute flights with them
at very reasonable prices.

David Horne

Michelle <> wrote:

    > "Mark Hewitt" <> wrote in
    > message news:<bqo88h$21f$>...
    >
    > > If you can get tickets then New Years in Edinburgh comes highly recommended.
    > > You could explore some of the rest of Scotland after that, there are also
    > > Ski resorts in Scotland you may be able to go Snow Boarding there!
    >
    > Edinburgh seems like a fun party, I will look into going up to Scotland.

Ski resorts in Scotland have been doing terribly in recent years,
because there's not much snow, and the trend is towards even less.
There's usually not that much around Xmas and New Year. I don't know if
any are using artificial snow or not. Scotland is definitely worth a
visit during New Year if you like lots of partying- just don't expect
the snow...

David