Canadian Travellers’ Favourite Winter Sunshine Destinations

If you live in Canada and are thinking about getting away for the winter, or at least a week or two, you are probably thinking about heading to Cuba, the Dominican Republic or Mexico. A recent survey says that these are the most popular destinations for Canadian travellers and there has never been a better time to head south for the winter. Seek out the vacation packages available that enable you to save so much that you may be able to stay an extra day or two.

Winter Sunshine in Cuba

Cuba has some beautiful beaches where you can relax and enjoy yourself. Cayo Coco has private resorts, 5 star hotels and fantastic vacation deals that will not break the bank. Varadero is one of the most popular resort destinations and is extremely comfortable. Stay at the Iberostar Laguna Azula which is an all inclusive resort that has 6 pools, 8 restaurants and bars, a nightclub, theatre and a kids club. Have a massage at the spa or workout in the fully equipped fitness room. Located on a small private island, Hotel Barcelo Cayo Libertad Club Premium has everything you need for a spectacular holiday. You can go snorkelling, play beach volleyball or enjoy cocktails at the pool-side bar.

Winter Sunshine in Mexico

Another popular southern destination for Canadians is Mexico. The weather is beautiful all year round and you can find some excellent vacation packages that will leave you with plenty of spending money for your trip. Head to Los Cabos in Baja and catch that elusive marlin that you have been dreaming about, or book a flight to Riviera Nayarit which is the newest destination in Mexico. Stay at the Hotel Emporio and get a room with an ocean view. You can dine on fresh seafood as you bask in the sun on your own private beach.

Winter sunshine in Dominican Republic

Vacations in Dominican Republic are known for white sandy beaches and relaxed lifestyle. Get out of the cold and book an affordable vacation deal. You can stay at the newest inclusive resort in Punta Cana. The Hotel Riu Bavaro has plenty of activities which include windsurfing, kayaking, snorkelling and sailing. If you want to get away from the crowds for the day take a drive to Constanza. Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the region of La Vega which is 1200 metres above sea level.

Start planning your winter holiday and book your tickets. With so many vacation packages at your fingertips you will have a hard time deciding if you want to go to Cuba, Mexico or the Dominican Republic.

My thanks for this article to Bernard Prince from travel agency VarVacation.com. You can also reach him on Facebook and Twitter

Photo Credits: Los Cabos, Baja by memoflores, Varadero, Cuba by Iker Merodio, Royal Decameron, Riviera Nayarit by EtienneT, and Cordillera Central by raunov.

More places to visit for Winter sunshine

Swimming, surfing, snorkeling – best beaches of the Dominican republic
Our top 5 Sights on Awesome Aruba
Spotlight on Cabo San Lucas in Mexico – what to do and where to stay

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Brighton – a very British Seaside Town

Brighton has long been the haunt of Londoners who are in need of respite from the Big Smoke. Graham Greene wrote about it in his famous novel Brighton Rock– an interesting insight into what it was like in a time when people went down in their Sunday best clothes and strolled along the promenade in a quintessentially English way.

It has always had an eccentric air about it. Just a look at the Brighton Pavilion attests to this. The Pavilion was built for Prince Regent between 1787 and 1823 so that he could entertain his mistress there. It was designed in a skewed Indian architectural style, the British having liked the architecture in India and attempted to copy it themselves. The result is almost comic, particularly in a classic British seaside resort.

For sometime Brighton has been known as Britain’s gay capital too. There’s a good gay bar scene. Near to the station, behind (perhaps appropriately) a PVC cover, there’s Banksy’s portrait of two male policemen kissing, quite a nice nod to the community.

Brighton has what you want from a British seaside resort mixed with good pubs, restaurants and shopping. Along the seafront, there are a few fish and chip places including one that serves crab soup, which you will smell long before you see it.  However, the places along the seafront are more expensive than great well-known locations such as Bardsley’s on Baker Street.

The old Brighton pier – West Pier – stands, a charcoal husk just out to sea. It was opened in 1866. Maintenance costs led to degradation, which in turn resulted in the pier being cut off from the shore for safety. Storms after that led to parts of it falling into the sea and a couple of fires after that left it as what you see it today.

There are a couple of decorative iron pieces from the old pier in the Brighton Fishing Museum on the seafront. The pier visitors go to today is to the left of the old one. It has amusement arcades with slot machines and toy grabbing games, a helter skelter, ghost train and a couple of other rides as well as a tarot reader who works from a gypsy caravan on the pier.

The city of Brighton and Hove is known for its cultural and arts scene and there are some cute galleries on the seafront as well as inland. There are also a few market stalls dotted about when the weather suits.

There is (contrary to popular belief) a great train service between London and Brighton. So while cheap car hire would be one way to get there if coming from London, you don’t really need it unless you’re sticking around for a while. Buses here are expensive enough that you might as well.

If travelling in from another part of the UK, trains are still recommended – as long as you book far enough in advance. The UK has the cheapest advance train fares in Europe but the last minute fares are among the most expensive.

This post was brought to you by CarHireMarket.com  and written by Liz Vega who writes mostly about Britain and loves the seaside.

More things to do around England

Ships and Shopping at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
A walk around the harbourside in Bristol – Video
Hunting the Ash-black slug on Dartmoor – in Devon

Photo Credits: Brighton Pavilion by Fenners1984, Banksy’s kissing policemen by simonbooth, Seaside resort food by drchrispinnock,  and Brighton pier by EEPaul.

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

Sea, sand and historic thrills in Blackpool

Blackpool… For many, just the name of the UK’s most famous seaside resort is enough to make them cringe, conjuring up images of run-down games arcades and seedy bars packed full of binge-drinking teenagers. For me, it has always brought to mind the historic Pleasure Beach, one of Britain’s oldest amusement parks and still one of its most popular. Yet the town’s original success was built on its expansive coastline and long, sandy beaches – features that are still present today. With significant investments being made to try and rejuvenate Blackpool’s seafront, how do the man-made attractions stack up against the natural elements? And is either aspect enough to justify a visit?

I’ve dreamed of visiting the town ever since I was a small child, but being on the opposite side of the UK to our Ipswich home it fell into the category of “so close, yet so far”. Earlier this year, we decided to compile a list of all the places in our country that we’d neglected to visit. Blackpool was right at the top, and so it was that we spent two days exploring it this summer.

Natural attractions in Blackpool

While the artificial aspects of the resort are hard to miss (a 65 metre tall roller coaster and 158 metre tall clone of the Eiffel Tower are never going to blend into the landscape), it was the extensive coastline that grabbed our attention immediately. Stretching on for over seven miles, it’s easy to see why trainload after trainload of working class tourists headed to the town following the construction of the first rail link in 1846. Few beaches could cope with the sheer number of visitors (tens of thousands every summer weekend in the 1920s) that descended upon Blackpool’s shores, but these ones could.

Of course, it was perhaps inevitable that the urban grime the workers were seeking to escape from would eventually follow them to the coast. A multi-lane road runs in parallel to the seafront, although there is at least a large promenade and a tram line to separate it from the sand itself. Row after row of bed and breakfasts and hotels clamour for the sea views on offer, and many are badly in need of restoration after years of battering from the sea breeze. There are some pretty buildings around, but Blackpool is never going to be famous for its architecture.

Does this detract from the seafront? I don’t think so. The lure of the seaside is as strong as ever, and the features that have attracted tourists to Blackpool for the last century-and-a-half are still very prominent. Whether it’s a family day out with bucket and spade in tow, or a just a relaxing stroll along sand that doesn’t seem to end, most people will find something to enjoy here. Even those most disapproving of the way the resort has evolved may not be able to resist a quick ice cream and a paddle in the surf.

Top natural attractions to visit in Blackpool include:

• Central Beach – the heart and soul of the town, Central Beach is an expansive tract of golden sand located right in the heart of Blackpool. For families, this is the place to go for sunbathing, sand-castle building and donkey rides.
• St Annes Beach – if you’re looking for a more relaxing spot away from the noise and bustle of Central Beach, St Annes offers a quieter alternative. Located a few miles down the coast, it’s a great place for a walk or a swim.

Man-made attractions in Blackpool

Of course, the variable weather conditions that ultimately led to British tourists heading to Spain and Portugal will still have a huge impact on your ability to linger outdoors. That’s where Blackpool’s range of man-made distractions come into play – and there are a huge number of them. From major attractions such as the iconic Blackpool Tower (which we were unable to visit due to recently-completed refurbishment work), Madame Tussaud’s waxworks and the Sea Life Centre (all operated by a single firm, Merlin Entertainments Group) to the dozens of arcades, tea rooms and pubs, almost everywhere you look someone is trying to extract some of your hard-earned cash.

I’ll be honest – for me, there is only one game in town. Having remained in family ownership for years, Blackpool Pleasure Beach still draws visitors to the South Shore like a magnet. First opened in 1896, it has outlasted the vast majority of seaside parks from its era by continuing to invest and improve. Several major rides have been added in the past two decades, while 2011 saw the opening of the £10 million Nickelodeon Land.  The park is also home to  the UK’s tallest rollercoaster, the Pepsi Max Big One.

While I am an unapologetically huge fan of amusement parks, it is not Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s modern rides that interest me. Instead, it is the vast array of classic attractions on offer, some of which date back to the early 20th century. This gives the park the feel of a living, working museum, rather than a simple tourist trap. The River Caves was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, while the Big Dipper roller-coaster was among the forerunners to today’s major thrill rides. It is the 1904 Flying Machines, though, that really caught my imagination. Still a great attraction today, it is difficult to comprehend how amazed visitors of that era must have been by this stunning piece of engineering.

Outside of Pleasure Beach, some of the best man-made attractions in Blackpool’s bewildering line-up include:

• Blackpool Tower – visible from all over the town, the Tower has recently undergone a major renovation which added the somewhat out-of-place Blackpool Tower Dungeons walk-through horror exhibit. Besides the stunning views from the top, though, the biggest draw remains the famous Tower Ballroom. Dominated by enormous crystal chandeliers, it still plays host to ballroom dancing nights on a frequent basis.
• Sandcastle Water Park – kids will demand a visit to Britain’s most famous indoor water park. Highlights include the world’s first (and longest) water slide featuring an uphill section, the Master Blaster.
• Grand Theatre - having opened in 1894, the Grand Theatre has shown impressive staying power and now features the official title of Britain’s National Theatre of Variety. The performances won’t always be to everyone’s taste, but the building itself is still worth a look.
• Blackpool Illuminations – introduced in 1879 as a way of extending the holiday season, the Illuminations sees over a million lights used to decorate six miles of Blackpool promenade.

Overall, then, I would recommend a visit to Blackpool to a diverse range of people from lovers of the sea air, to casual history buffs, right through to hardened thrill-seekers. The town still has some way to go to fully clean itself up, and it’s hard to see it ever returning to its glory days. But as a nostalgia-inducing reminder of how the natural and artificial combined to offer fun-packed seaside holidays in years gone by, it still has plenty to offer.

Thanks for this guest post to Nick Sim from Theme Park Tourist, your guide to theme parks and amusement parks , featuring news, guides and reviews for parks all over the world

Photo credits: Blackpool beach and tower by diamond geezer,  The Pepsi Max Big One by Ingy The Wingy and Pier by stinksoup   Other photos by Nick Sim.

More delights up North

Getting to know LS Lowry at the Lowry in Manchester
Snowdrops at Lytham Hall in Lancashire England
The must see sights of Leeds

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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