Winter Wonderland 2012

Tomorrow is the opening of this years Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London. Me, Charlotte and Gemma travelled down to London for the day last Christmas and visited the Winter Wonderland, and it really was good. Hyde Park lierally get's transformed into a wonderland.
It boasts many attractions including a Circus, Fair Rides, Ice skating Rink, Santa Land and Angel's Christmas Market. Plus new for 2012 is the Magical Ice Kingdom, which looks like it will be worth a visit. The entrance is free into the park but some of the main attractions are payable and the Circus and Giant Wheel are being advised for people to prebook so they are not disappointed about missing out.
Hyde Park is easily accesible whilst your visiting London either by Tube, Bus or Taxi so it really is worth popping in and having  look around. Winter Wonderland Opens tomorrow 23rd November and is open right until 6th January 2013, plenty of time for you to go. We will be visiting once again this year on our day trip to London in December as we enjoyed it last year and it really does help lift your christmas spirit and get you in the mood. Here is a couple of pictures of it:

Viva Las Vegas!

3rd November 2012, exactly a year ago today myself and my best mate Charlotte flew out for 7 nights in the "adults playground" and "City of Sin", Las Vegas!

 The strip is where all the main action is and the majority of the fantastic, huge hotel and casino resorts are located from the South end of the strip which is where the famous Las Vegas Sign is located the hotels start with the Mandalay Bay Resort and Luxor right up to the North End of the Strip which is where you will find the Stratosphere Resort which not boasts attractions right at the very top, if you dare to go on them, we didn't haha! In addition to the main Vegas Strip there is another area called Freemont Street, which is the "Old Vegas" and boasts older casinos like the Golden Nugget for example and the canopy of Freemont Street has a fantastic Light show which is amazing and is well worth a visit one evening.

 We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino which was close to the South end of the strip and was attached, by walkways, to the Luxor, New York New York and Tropicana Resorts. We found the hotel had a brilliant location and was really good value for money for what we wanted.

 It is true that everything is bigger and better in Vegas from the Super hotel and casino resorts to the size of the food portions they truly are huge yet really cheap. The food outlets range from brilliant buffets to very expensive and boutique style restaurants. Plus no blog about Vegas is complete without mentioning the fantastic shows available up and down the strip. Me and Charlotte were lucky enough to be able to visit 3 of them in 7 days. So we started with Tournament of the Kings which is in the Excalibur Hotel, you get a show and a meal which was a really good family night out, cheering on your designated knight, it really was a good laugh and good night out. Secondly we booked The Lion King at Mandalay Bay, all i can say is WOW! what a show from fantastic costumes to brilliant music we really enjoyed it. However when we got a recomendation from our rep to see a show called Le Reve, to start with we thought is it going to be worth the amount of money we had to pay to go? How wrong we were the show is located in the Wynn hotel and what a breathtaking show it was, clearly the best show we had seen in our time in Las Vegas, but with so many other shows to pick we were happy with our selection.

Finally no trip to Sin City is complete without a day trip out to the Grand Canyon, which is out of this world, without visiting it i really don't believe you can grasp the scale of this amazing place.

We travelled with a company called Pink Jeep Tours who were amazing and again well worth the money we paid to go. We had a full day out which included 3 view points of the Grand Canyon, a meal at a ranch and also a quick visit to the Hoover Dam. A truly amazing day out and was really enojyed by both us.

 We travelled with Virgin Holidays out to Las Vegas but there are many other Travel Companies who run package holidays out to Sin City so its always best to shop around. Direct flights are available from most major airports in the UK out to Las Vegas Mccaran Airport with a flight time of aprox 10 and a half hours.

 So to sum up our holiday in Vegas i would say everyone should visit Las Vegas at least once in their life however i personally found 7 nights to be a bit long and would have rather had less time in Vegas and maybe moved on to somewhere else in America maybe San Fransisco or LA. Where as in Charlottes opinion she loved the place and really wants to go back again, i would travel back to Vegas if it was being used a stop over on a longer trip. Maybe you should go a try it for yourself i doubt you will be disappointed!

Maldives: Boring or Blissful?

The Maldives a place where a lot of people say they would like to visit but is it really that good?

The hotels in the Maldives are literally tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, and are very luxurious resorts with some fantastic rooms and even water bungalows, which sit in the ocean on stilts so your views are truly amazing.

The Maldives are served by Male International Airport and can be easily accessed from the larger airports in the UK, and with a flight time of roughly 12-13 hours surely it has to be worth it when you arrive. However once you have flown all that way your still not in your tropical retreat, you are then transferred to most of the islands by speed boat or if you want to splash the cash you can opt to take a sea plane transfer.

 In my opinion the Maldives could be quite boring, i mean how long can you really spend reading in the sun or walking round an island that in total would take probably 30minutes. Mind you saying that with the more popular options of twin centre holidays which can include the Maldives and Dubai this would be more appealing to me, 1 week of activity in Dubai then a relaxing week in the Maldives.

 So Boring or Blissful? well i suppose it depends on the person and what you really want out your much needed holiday abroad.

      Here are a couple of pictures to tickle your taste buds.

It's all about Bulgaria in 2012

So as am a travel agent I have found that one of the most popular destinations of 2012 was Bulgaria!
So if it was good enough for most people I surely had to try it out for myself so that's exactly what me and Gemma did! We booked 2 weeks all inclusive to Sunny Beach, located on the Black Sea this resort is one which can suit everyone. It boasts a fantastic stretch of golden beach and a good resort centre with something for everyone from shopping to good restaurants and even some hot night spots to dance the night away. It also boasts fantastic temperatures throughout the summer season and whilst we were there in September we had a nice daily temperature of around 25 degrees.
Whilst on holiday we visited Nessebar which is easily reached either by bus, land train or even boat from Sunny Beach. This quaint little fishing village has beautiful cobbler streets featuring little trinket shops and some gorgeous little restaurants and street cages perfect for passing the day away in the sun. We also managed trips to Sozopol and Bourgas again both beautiful cities with their own identity. My personal favourite had to be Sozopol and when I return to Bulgaria I will surely re-visit this beautiful place.
So why choose Bulgaria? Well for a start its cheap not only to get there but while your on holiday with general costs starting at 0.98lv for a pint if beer which equates roughly to around 48p and three course meals costing no more than £30 for me and Gemma to eat!
The resort if Sunny Beach is served by Bourgas International Airport with flights going there from most UK regional and international airports.
Must visits on your trip have got to include Nessebar, Sozopol, and the fantastic night out at Khans Tent a night you will always remember and such good value for money!

 

The first picture shows the lovely Sunny Beach and the Second is the quaint and beautiful Nessebar!

Getting up to Speed!

So after a little persuasion i have decided to start writing my own blog. My blog will contain bits and bobs about my life, dieting and my biggest passion in life...Travel.
 I would say i have a relatively happy life, without a care in the world about how i look or what other people think of me. I suppose i finally took a good look at myself and my lifestyle after New Years Eve 09/10, after a fancy dress party with many family and friends, i was looking back over the pictures from the night i thought to myself my weight is becoming a real problem.
 Once the realisation had sunk in, my mood was very low, i was upset and so made a deal that 2010 would be the year for change. My friends began to notice a change in my mood and attitude so one night i sat with them both (Charlotte and Gemma) and explained everything to them and after plucking up the courage to step on the scales i revealed to them the astronomical weight i had reached. Together, whilst watching the TV programme The Biggest Loser, it was time we all changed and would all try to loose weight.
 So bringing the story forward i tried numerous amounts of diets and quick weight loss solutions including The Biggest Loser Diet, Slim Fast, Lipotrim and even Weight Watchers, all them bringing small results or results which would quickly disappear after the diet was finished.
 So now you are up to speed..May 14th 2012 myself and Charlotte got ourselves a cheap last minute deal to Gran Canaria for 7 nights, perfect i thought a week in the sun with my best friend in a new destination i had not yet explored. It was while we were on that trip that we both told each other that our weight was still bringing us down and we were not fully happy with what we weighed or what we looked like. Our good friend Joanne had joined Slimming World in January and we were starting see fantastic results from her. That was it decision made one last blow out on Holiday and when we returned to the UK it was time to bite the bullet and join with Joanne.
 Exactly a week after myself, Charlotte and Joanne walked into our first Slimming World meeting at a group in Goole. We were introduced to Mandy our Slimming World consultant, we had the full diet explained to us and were made to feel very welcome into the "slimming family" of our group.
 The challenge was on.. with so many free foods to eat and super free foods to eat how could i possible get it wrong. So i took the bull by the horns and took the diet into my life in full, changing my eating habits and the way i ate and viewed food. The following Tuesday arrived quicker than i expected...Weigh In Day. I knew i had done OK this week getting my head round the diet and eating what i thought would help me. That week i lost 11.5lb and have never looked back since.