Holidays

Palma is a fantastic destination to visit for a city break. With its fast emerging arts backdrop, thriving music scene and stylish shopping, it combines chic city living with culture and cuisine, so is perfect for a long weekend getaway. Once more, Mallorca Farmhouses offers a superb selection of luxury apartments and villas both in Palma and the surrounding area that makes for an ideal base.

Finding a holiday that offers a physical challenge is top of the agenda for solo travellers, according to the latest figures from tour operator The Adventure Company. While couples and families booking trips with the operator appear to prefer cultural journeys and wildlife encounters, those travelling alone are more inclined to book trips where their physical limits are put to the test.

Last year one in six holiday makers became a victim of theft abroad. This year American Express Travellers Cheques is issuing advice to help travellers keep their possessions safe whilst they explore foreign shores.

According to national research released today by Jet2holidays.com, we are a nation of obsessives when it comes to packing our suitcases, with one in four (27 per cent) packing at least a week before their holiday and a third (31 per cent) repacking at least twice, with the average Brit taking one hour 16 minutes and 28 seconds to do so.

Leading boating holiday specialist the Le Boat group is offering savings of 20% on all boat hire prices for July holidays cruising on Flanders network of pretty canals and rivers.

Visitors to Ely can now enjoy a walking tour of the city and its cathedral using their very own iPod or MP3 player. Tourist Tracks has added Ely to its growing portfolio of destinations in the UK featuring a downloadable MP3 walking tour. The Ely tour pack contains two tours - one of the city and one of the interior of the cathedral (a separate entrance fee is payable). The city tour is a 60-minute stroll giving visitors the opportunity to discover the history behind the city's name, its origins as an island and walk along the banks of the River Ouse.

Families in the UK are increasingly booking summer holidays that combine city breaks with camping. Eurocamp, the UK’s leading European camping operator, has seen a substantial increase in enquiries and sales of urban camping family holidays in the past year.

Sunvil Sailing has reduced the price of its learn-to-sail, live-aboard, family holidays cruising the sunny Greek Ionian Sea down to £599pppw with flights from London Gatwick or Manchester for departures on 20 and 27 July. This is a saving of £273pp travelling via Gatwick and £308pp from Manchester.

We spend all year dreaming of a break from the rat race, so how can we make sure we make the most of our time away? According to a nationwide study commissioned by global travel experiences company isango! (isango.com), you are more likely to have a perfect holiday if you can tick off the following seven factors:

What could be friendlier to the environment, your health and your pocket than a walking holiday in Britain? Walking specialist operator, Ramblers Countrywide Holidays has a few suggestions which will help beat the credit crunch and expanding waistline!

Somak Holidays marks its 40th birthday with the launch of a new Worldwide brochure featuring 40 new experiences. Thai home-stays, mobile safaris, working ranches and luxury lodges: These are just some of the forty fabulous holidays Somak Holidays (somak.co.uk) is offering to mark its 40th birthday.

With an increasing number of holidays in Scotland offering opportunities for visitors to learn a new skill, are creative breaks Britain’s newest travel trend? Lonely Planet Travel Editor, Tom Hall, believes so: “One of the hottest trends in travel is learning a new skill while you're away. Travellers are keen to get more out of their trip - whether it's cooking up a feast, learning a language or something more off-the-wall. Destinations that offer an easy-going environment to learn in are increasingly attractive as people's enthusiasm for on-the-road learning grows.”

Bring the family together and enjoy a festive summer holiday in the Sahara. A weakening pound doesn’t mean your family has to make do with a dry sandwich and a luke warm cup of tea at the local garden fete. Dream big - jet off to Tunisia and enjoy an extravaganza of events celebrating music, dance and the magical history of this beautiful destination.

Over-55s specialist Grand UK Holidays has seen a surge in last-minute self-drive bookings as more Brits seek breaks in the UK. Sales director Harold Burke said: "We are well known for our coach tours but we have recently seen spikes in bookings for our self-drive holidays.

British holidaymakers would rather shorten their holiday than skimp on luxury, reveals analysis from leading travel retailer travelocity.co.uk. The company has seen the number of five-star and luxury holiday bookings increase by more than 10% for the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2007.

Ramblers Worldwide Holidays are offering a two week holiday in The Oetztal – one of Austria’s most spectacular glaciated areas. Famed for the discovery of Ice Man ‘Oetzi’ (the Bronze Age) hunter frozen in the ice for 5,300 years, this is a ‘high level adventure’, combining serious walking with hutting en route.

Uniworld announces the debut of its newest, company-owned ship, the River Tosca. Poised to set 'the' standard for service on the Nile, the Tosca will begin sailing in April 2009. The River Tosca joins Uniworld's nine other intimate, boutique hotel-style ships and will deliver the same impeccable service, award-winning hospitality and lavish décor.

Fed up with the mixed British weather and dreaming of a sunshine holiday? Then look no further than specialist tour operator, Tropical Sky (tropicalsky.co.uk) which has a whole host of Caribbean holidays this summer that the whole family will enjoy.

One of the most successful holiday concepts within the extensive Ramblers Worldwide Holidays portfolio is their ‘Cruise and Walk’ programme in partnership with Fred Olsen Cruises.

For many travellers, holidays are undertaken as an educational experience, and for people of this mindset, Australia’s Hamilton Island, a beautiful year round holiday destination, is the perfect choice.

Whale watching is one of the world's great natural experiences, and nowhere is it as alluring as in the calm waters of Queensland’s Hervey Bay. Every year thousands of humpback whales travel from Antarctica along the east coast of Australia to give birth in the warm waters of Northern Queensland. On their return migration they stop to rest and play and nurture their calves in the safe waters of Hervey Bay in the protected lee of World Heritage-listed Fraser Island.

Keeping the children entertained over the school holidays is never an easy task, so to help take the stress out of planning days out and activities, Teletext Holidays has launched a dedicated ‘School’s Out’ section featuring the best days out and attractions across the country.

You can give you children the opportunity to swim with Dolphins this year with Small Families, the UK’s leading operator for single parent holidays. Staying at the Vila Gale Nautico Hotel in Portugal’s Algarve you have the opportunity of a special excursion to the ‘Zoo Marine’ where there is the chance to get up close to two playful and friendly dolphins.

The luck o' the Irish is now on every traveller's side, thanks to a new website catering exclusively to affordable, customized trips to Ireland. Launched just this week, IrishGetaways.com is debuting as the definitive online resource for planning and booking trips to the Emerald Isle. People who've dreamed of visiting or who wish to return to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are discovering great luck through this one-stop webshop, dedicated to attention-grabbing prices for Ireland-only travel.

Top 20 Travel Agent*, directline-holidays.co.uk has added video content to its website in the form of hotel guides. Visitors to directline-holidays.co.uk will be able to view videos of its 1,000 most popular hotels after completing a holiday search. Another 1,000 are being filmed in summer 2008.

For those who still haven’t decided where to go this summer, Stena Line is giving customers even more reason to set sail across the Irish Sea and enjoy a holiday in Ireland with a fantastic summer motorist fare from only £90* single for car plus two adults and kids go free.

Parents hoping to treat their kids to a family holiday will be hit by inflated holiday premiums according to the latest study from Abbey Credit Cards.

Go wild – literally – and make tracks across Australia in the ultimate camping vehicle. Britz, Australia’s largest campervan rental company has unveiled the new frontier in self-drive camping holidays- the Britz Safari 4WD. There’s never been a better way to get close to nature and go camping while kicking back with some of the creature comforts of home. The rugged V8 Landcruiser 4WD Workmate Wagon enables you to explore the open road, pull up a site and pitch a tent - whilst including everything you’ll ever need for your camping holiday.

Interhome, Europe's fastest-growing holiday homes group is expanding throughout the United States. It has concluded a co-operation agreement with ResortQuest, the leading US company specialising in holiday property rentals. The deal will create the largest holiday rental management network in the world.