Thursday, June 30, 2011

Day 23 - write a review of a hotel

As you may or may not know, I recently returned from a short break on the beautiful island of Rhodes.

Ok, I stayed in Faliraki, but the hotel was really top-notch.

I have never been on an all-inclusive holiday before, but since it was my little sisters wedding I had no choice in the matter....Sun Palace Hotel, Faliraki Road Rhodes...was absolutely fantastic, all you could possibly eat (from all four corners of the world); all you could possibly drink (although the red wine was served from the fridge it was still acceptable since it would have been 20 odd degrees which is hardly room temperature); a great pool; loads of things to do; and lots of friendly, attentive staff.

Anyway, I digress, I have been working all over Europe for over a decade now and most weeks have stayed in a hotel, up until now I have read most reviews of hotels I was due to stay at with a large pinch of salt:

"Hotel fantastic, but it was really let down by not having an International Tiddly-Winks arena next door"!!!

or...

"Hated everything about this hotel: worst possible room, heating on full blast, shower stone cold, bed lumpy, wallpaper was disgusting, bar always closed, food tasted of cardboard....would highly recommend staying"!


So, day 23, I thought I'd write a review of the hotel in Rhodes to see how hard it is...here goes... 
Utterly fantastic hotel...would highly recommend!
Having never been on an all-inclusive holiday before, I was happily surprised to discover how fantastic this hotel is run!

From the minute you arrive (with a welcoming glass of champagne while you check-in) the staff are really friendly and attentive.

The rooms are clean, modern, and comfortable, although slightly on the small side - but that hardly matters since the only time I spent in the room was to get changed for dinner or go to sleep at the end of a fantastic day sat by the pool; or in the bar; or joining in with the many organised activities.

The choice of food is over-whelming...really!

The bar is well stocked (with many international brands).

The pool is great.

The other guest's were also pretty good too!

Special mention must go to the manager who did his very best to make sure my trip back home was so easy....many many thanks!

All in all I would highly recommend this hotel for families with kids upto around 12 years of age.
There, I did it, the hotel was really good, so I'm afraid it may appear as if I am the manager writing it...but who cares, someone like me will probably read it with the same pinch of salt as I would.

As proof of the writing the review, I have posted this to tripadvisor and hotels (with whom I made the booking), and now have to wait upto 72 hours to get it published...once it is I'll update the links here.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Day 22 - go on holiday

everyone needs a holiday now and again...even if you live in the south of france and everyday is one loooong holiday, its still nice to get away and forget all about the sunshine; forget all about the pool; forget all about the games of boules; forget all about good wine; forget all about good food...

...infact, forget all about everything that you've spent decades perfecting in your own little world and then you can go and pick holes in everything that someone else has decided is the perfect holiday!

That said, I have just got back from the beautiful island of Rhodes, and it was pretttty, pretttty good if I say so myself.

It was my little sisters wedding and she had decided on Falaraki...which wasn't the easiest of places to get to from the south of France (it appeared that only the English and Germans fly direct, although I found out while I was there that Belgium and some of the Nordic countries also do it).

It was the Sun Palace Hotel. I've worked in lots of different places in the world and stayed in lots of different hotels in the world, but this one was the most difficult hotel I've come across to book (at least when booking something a little different, like only 3 nights!), it appears that people only ever go to Rhodes for a week at a time (dictated presumably by the travel companies)!

What was most difficult though was getting there. Either fly north for a direct flight back to the south or take a very long and convoluted route half-way across Europe.

In the end I opted for:
1. flight from Nice to Rome;
When in Rome
"lunchtime, and when in Rome..."

2. flight from Rome to Athens;
Waiting for the plane
"its a long wait in the airport!"

3. flight from Athens to Rhodes.
Athens Airport
"it was getting dark at this point"

Total Time (door to door) = 13 hours.
Total Flying Time = 3 hours!

Total time sat in goddamn awful airports = 10 hours!!!

The Pool
"finally arrived...only 13 hours later!"

Still it was worth every second to be at the wedding...and to be on a little holiday to boot.

Only thing left was do the exact opposite all over again....

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Day 21 - send a tweet when someone breaks a tripwire!

I know its been almost 2 weeks (14 days missed), but I went on holiday...no guesses as to what tomorrows blog is going to be...

...however for now, watch this in action! very, very cool



you can get full details over here.

Day 15 - do a multi-lingual crossword...

...kind of!



This is the crossword from the May edition of The Connexion, an english paper here in France.



I have started doing the crossword to help extend my knowledge of french words (most of which I have to look up in the dictionary) and I have to say its extremely satisfying when the final word goes in.



May Edition of Connexion Crossword



I am assuming they wont mind me putting the crossword here! If nobody objects I will post the answers on day 45, if they do object, then I wont....but feel free to ask for hints (I have only got 10 answers so far, but I am hoping to have filled it in before Junes edition comes out!).



Good Luck