The big events
Next year is a big one for those landmark events that take place only every
four, five or even ten years — and there’s already a scramble for tickets.
Sport has the Winter Olympics in Whistler in February, followed by the World
Cup in South Africa in the summer. Flights to the World Cup in particular
are rocketing in price, while most hotel rooms in South Africa have been
reserved for official Fifa packages.
However, a new website, toescapeto.com,
lists upmarket properties available to rent independently, such as the
two-bed Waterfront apartment costing £400 a night, within walking distance
of the Cape Town stadium. Or Thomson Sport (0845 1212018, thomsonsport.com)
has five-night packages from £2,500 including flights, B&B in Cape
Town, transfers, a ticket for a group-stage match, plus a safari experience.
For Whistler, Scott Dunn (020-8682 5050, scottdunn.com)
can arrange tickets for any of the Winter Olympics events, and combine them
with a six-night holiday staying at Four Seasons Whistler. With BA flights,
it costs £3,300 on a room-only basis.
It’s a ten-year wait if you miss out on the 41st Passion Play in Oberammergau,
Germany. The play, with its roots in the 1630s, when plague-beset villagers
promised to re-enact the Passion of Christ if the deaths stopped (they did),
is now held once a decade. It’s five hours long and in German, but the tale
is easy to follow.
Stay in the heart of Oberammergau in the Hotel Gasthof zur Rose, which is full
of passion-play memorabilia, with Dertour (020-7290 1111, dertour.co.uk)
from £919pp including flights, three nights in Munich, one in Oberammergau.
One of the most sacred of all Hindu pilgrimages, the Maha Kumbha Mela, held
every 12 years, is also on the calendar from January to April at Haridwar,
Uttar Pradesh. Millions attend each day, taking a ritual bath in the Ganga.
Be one of them from £2,595pp staying seven nights at Ananda in the
Himalayas, full board, plus a night in Delhi, with flights. Book with
Abercrombie & Kent (0845 6182214, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk).
Closer to home, the Ghent Floralies, held once every five years, will bring
the Flemish medieval city out in bloom during April 17-25. Follow the 2km
trail past a spectacular array of floral displays and landscaped designs.
VFB Holidays (01452 716831, vfbholidays.co.uk)
has a three-night self-drive trip from £196pp including Channel ferry
crossing and one day’s entry to the Floralies. Train packages from £225pp.
Ones to watch
Be part of the running, moo-ing, dirt-kicking herd on the Great Australian
Outback Cattle Drive next August, a re-creation of the famous 32-mile
herding down the Birdsville Track. There are six four-night droving
itineraries to choose from, at about £1,595pp, including tents, all meals
and horse riding but not flights, with Cox & Kings (020-7873 5000, coxandkings.co.uk).
One of the most sought-after events in Africa is the annual Kalahari Bushmen’s
initiation hunt in Botswana to witness the interaction between human beings
and wildlife. The eight-night hunt in wild terrain with no roads, costs
£815pp per night from April 28, with Steppes Travel (01285 880980, steppestravel.co.uk).
Flights are extra.
Next year’s solar eclipse on July 11 is remarkable because there are very few
accessible observation points from which the total eclipse is visible,
including the remote Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island.
Explorers Tours (0845 6091590, explorerseclipse.co.uk)
has itineraries to each, but a ten-day trip taking in Tahiti and the Tuamotu
Islands from July 7 costs £3,999pp including flights and ten nights’ B&B.
Other events that need to be planned now include Carnival in Rio and Peru’s
week-long festival of the sun, Inti Raymi, on or around June 24 in the hills
above Cusco.
The best guides
It’s that trip of a lifetime to notch up the big five, but what you see on
safari really depends on the quality of your guide, which is why the best
are asked for by name by those in the know, and are booked up for months, if
not for years. For instance, in Southern Africa, Benson Siyawareva, who is
co-owner of Ngoko Safaris (ngoko.com),
already has confirmed bookings for 2011.
Greg Lederle, from Molori Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Game reserve in South
Africa, has become top choice for a string of A-list safari fans, from Kate
Moss to Lily Allen. The lodge has only five suites so fills up fast despite
the hefty price; three nights’ all inclusive, with flights, costs £3,800pp,
with Cazenove & Loyd (020-7384 2332, cazloyd.com).
If you prefer the guide who took Princes William and Harry on their first
safari, you’ll need to pay even more to book David Bromham in Kenya with
Abercrombie & Kent (0845 6182122, abercrombiekent.co.uk).
Or book James Varden in Zimbabwe, who was proclaimed one of the best by none
other than Sir Ranulph Fiennes. It costs from $200 a day to hire him from
African & Indian Explorations (01993 822443, www.africanexplorations.com).
If safaris aren’t your thing but mountain climbing is, the survival expert
Bear Grylls — the man who crossed the Atlantic via the Arctic Circle in an
open-top boat — is leading a climb of Morocco’s Mount Toubkal in April. No
expertise is needed to climb the 4,167m peak, the highest in the High Atlas
Mountains, though you do need to be fit. Black Tomato (020-7426 9888, blacktomato.co.uk)
charges £6,500 for a couple sharing (one a climber, one not), including
three nights’ half board but not flights.
Accommodation
Quirky properties, larger villas and houses and prime holiday cottages always
get booked quickly, often before the end of the previous season for school
holidays. Mediterranean villas on the beach are particularly prime
properties. As the villa specialist CV Travel says, “After November, all the
good houses have gone in St Tropez”.
In the UK, though, among those to go earliest are the historical cottages run
by English Heritage (0870 3331187, www.english-heritage.org.uk).
The two-bedroom Pavilion Cottage in the grounds of Osborne House on the Isle
of Wight, with access to Queen Victoria’s private beach, has bookings
available next year for only the first two months of the year and the last
two months. It costs from £395 for a three-night weekend. And English
Heritage’s two properties at Dover Castle have availability from spring, are
filling up fast.
On a more quirky note, Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire (01437 772760, www.coastalcottages.co.uk)
has a property with no electricity — so no television or wi-fi — that is
always hard to get in peak season, probably because it’s on the
Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. There are still a few weeks’ availability next
summer.
Culture vulture
Want to sample Ferran Adrià’s much celebrated cooking at El Bulli in Roses,
near Girona in Spain? Then, come December, you need to check the website elbulli.com
for the opening of the 2010 reservations. As soon as they open, fire off an
e-mail with a choice of your dates and cross your fingers — only the lucky
will be accepted. And the rich — if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford
it.
One of the hottest tickets in town next year is expected to be for Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s new musical, Love Never Dies, in which the
Phantom of the Opera returns, this time haunting New York’s Coney Island.
Superbreak (0871 2223055, superbreak.com)
has show tickets, including three-star hotel accommodation, from £89pp,
valid from March 9-April 30.
New journeys
The first two journeys on the luxurious Maharajas’ Express, India’s
much-touted train, are already sold out. And the Delhi-Calcutta leg is
filling up fast on other departures from January to April. A six-night
journey on board the train, which has an observation and bar carriage, and
two fine dining rooms, costs £5,150pp full board, with Black Tomato
(020-7426 9888, blacktomato.co.uk),
including flights and a night at the Imperial Delhi, plus one night at the
Oberoi Grand in Calcutta.
Early-booking perks
We’re getting so used to seeing the usual raft of free child places and
early-bird discounts, most of which come in after Christmas, that it’s easy
to ignore them in the hope of something better later on. But if you’re tied
to particular dates, notably the school holidays, you can’t afford to wait.
Those free kids’ places have limited availability, as does an interesting
offer from the Amathus Hotels group (amathus-hotels.com)
in Limassol, Paphos and Rhodes to give free meals for children throughout
July and August. Some operators, such as the walking and cycling company
Belle France (01580 214010, bellefrance.co.uk),
are keeping 2009 prices for 2010, although you need to book by November 30
to get a price of £769pp for six nights in Provence next spring, including
cycle hire and half-board hotel but not travel from the UK.
Similarly, Caley Cruisers (01463 236328, caleycruisers.com),
which operates on Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal, has kept 2009 prices
if you book before the end of this month. And if you shop around, there are
still good luxury deals — stay at the new Constance Halaveli Resort in the
Maldives and get a free night for every one stayed, if you book before
October 31. That means that eight nights’ B&B from January 13 to
April 30 costs £2,095pp, down by £1,915, including flights, with Qantas
Holidays (020-8222 9124, qantasholidays.co.uk).
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