Inspired by it being the 29^th of February (a leap year), which also happens to be the only day women are allowed to propose, it got me thinking… if I were in the right place in my life, how and where would I pop the question? …The answer came to me within seconds; well within the most romantic city in the most romantic country in the world of course – Venice!

Whether you’re male or female, if you’re looking to make your proposal special and memorable, ideally it should be well thought out and planned. If you’re unfamiliar with the floating city, have a look at the following ideas for some inspiration.

Traditional Romantics

Gondola by Suomi Star

For those who ooze with romance and like nothing more than the sickliest lovey dovey activities, than clearly a gondola ride, complete with an Italian choir serenade is in order. Pop the question whilst you’re floating through the dim lit lagoon as the sun sets, make sure you request your choir to sing along to the romantic songs of the likes of Pavarotti and Russ Colombo.

Unconventional

Burano by O Plasson

Ok, so if you’re unconventional to the core, you may not think that Venice, a city full of swooning loved up couples would be to your tastes. However don’t judge a book by its cover. Step off the walkways of the city centre and you’ll find a city full of surprises. Take a boat ride, or even better, rent your own boat and go and explore Venice’s lesser known islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. These have a much more ‘down to earth’ feel about them. Wow your partner by taking them to watch glass blowing in Murano followed by a walk past the multicoloured decorated buildings of Burano. And since threes a charm, work up the nerve to ask the big question on the sleepy and secluded island of Torcello!

In the public eye

Saint Mark’s Square by lostajy

Some couples love to be in the spotlight. Tourists, passersby and conservative Venetians a show to remember by gathering a crowd and asking your beloved to marry you right in the middle of Saint Mark’s square. If you want to be even more dramatic you could arrive by speedboat, dress in Venice carnival wear and hire a marching band… The world is your oyster.

If you’d like to find out more about Venice why not take a look at this Venice travel guide, full of useful tips about how to have a blissful holiday in Venice.

Italy is one of the most popular holiday destinations worldwide. With its vast landscapes consisting of stunning seaside, dramatic mountains, heavenly lakes and blissful countryside, no matter what you’re looking to get out of your holiday, you can bet you’ll find it in Italy.

Countryside Escape

The Italian countryside is worlds away from fields and fields of green which we Brits are used to. Although they are very pleasant there is something magical about the yellow rolling hills of vineyards and olives and dotted with the symbolic cypress trees. The best known region in Italy for a countryside holiday is Tuscany. Those looking to get away from it all and truly embrace the Italian culture often decide to rent a villa on one of the beautiful secluded Tuscan hills.

Sun and sea

Wherever you may be in Italy, you can bet the sea will never be too far away. Its boot-like shape means that it can offer sun seekers 7,600 kilometres of sandy beaches. Here you can chill out and relax and soak up the hot rays, go for a little dip in the warm, yet refreshing Mediterranean waters.

High altitude fun

To the North you will find the Alps where snow sports enthusiast will be glad to hear offers facilities for your typical winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, but also can offer those looking to branch out, the opportunity to toboggan, go sledging and snowmobiling.

During the summertime the many flock to the mountain lakes to bathe in their refreshing crystal clear waters and marvel at their dramatic surroundings. Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake and offers various holiday options to suit all budgets. Families often chose to go for the popular camping option, whilst those who can afford it rent luxury villas with private lake beaches.

City Break

With Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Napoli and Pisa to choose from you sure are spoilt for choice if you’re looking for a city break. Stand within the grounds of the mighty Roman coliseum or perhaps you’d prefer to visit the world’s only floating city, or maybe you’ve come to Italy for to see the works of art of the greats such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

To many the county of Avon may only appear to be a boring blip on the UK map, however with two major cities you may be surprised at what this Southern county has to offer…

Bath

The Circus, Bath by Ian Muttoo

A city rich in history and heritage Bath is famous for its roman baths, dating all the way back to 60 AD. After the Romans came the Georgians who built the rest of the city in elegant Bath stone. During the 18^th and 19^th century Bath, famous for its apparently healing bath waters became a popular spa retreat for the high flying society in. The upper classes would flock to the city from London or their country estates to mingle, socialise, party and ultimately get married. The city is also famous for being the backdrop to many of Jane Austen’s most popular novels including Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Nowadays due to the pristine condition of the buildings and streets it’s often featured in films and period dramas.

Bristol

Bristol by pandrcutts

Although only a 12 minute train journey away, in contrast to Bath, Bristol is anything but pristine; the city centre is a mishmash of many styles of buildings, developed throughout the centuries. The atmosphere is similar to that of London – quirky, cool and cosmopolitan. The city is home to a thriving music scene, you’ll find many pubs offer live music, and the city is dotted with many comedy clubs and small music venues. There are also several large well known music venues, including the Bristol O2 Arena, which attracts the likes of top acts such as Plan B and La Roux.

The city a shopping haven, it’s home to all the classic high street shops, such as Topshop, River Island, Republic, all of which can be found in the new shopping centre, Calbot circus, as well as many cheaper and quirky boutiques and retro shops which can be found in the area surrounding Bristol University.

…And beyond

Stonehenge by nyaa_birdies_perch

If you’re looking to escape to hustle and bustle of city life, you’ll find you’re never more than twenty minutes away from the peaceful bliss of the countryside. Avon offers mile upon mile of country paths for you to explore and enjoy. Whilst you’re in the area make sure you don’t pass up on the chance to visit one of Britain’s most infamous landmarks and greatest mysteries – Stonehenge.

Any tourist, traveling to Vienna will visit these two main attractions:

The historical city center around St. Stephans Cathedral and Schönbrunn Palace.

The city center, surrounded by the ‘Ring Road’ is the heart of the city.  Individual travelers will be best off by downloading  a Vienna walking tour as an audioguide. For the most interesting sights in this zone you download short audio mp3 files onto your own mp3 player.  Following the according city map, you listen to the audio information right in front of each sight.  You get infos about sights, monuments and cafes and bars as well. There is no way to get familiar to Vienna more comfortable.

Especially the historical centre of Vienna goes well for this kind of audio walking tour.  You will find a huge number of sights of touristic interest within a circle of 1,5 km.  Very comfortable for tourists as you can just walk from sight to sight. „Your Friend in Vienna“ then just tells you what you see in front of the sights, just like walking through a museum and listening to an audio guide.  

For the second touristic hotspot in Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace you should also use an audioguide. (available in the Palace)

The Welsh coastline may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of fantastic beach destinations. Yet despite not having the reputation for the best weather, the magnificent Gower peninsula still attracts many visitors, keen to experience the spectacular beaches for themselves.

Situated on the tip of South West Wales, the Gower is proud to boast kilometer after kilometer of pristine Welsh coastline which is popular with families, surfers, water sports enthusiasts and of course… sheep! Here’s my pick of the Gower’s best beaches.

1) Three Cliffs Bay

How many beaches have you been to where you’ll find three cliffs, a river and even a castle nearby? Three Cliff Bay has it all and is perfect for rock climbers, families, rock pool explorers and surfers.

Three Cliffs Bay – Ladyr6

2) Rhossili Bay

Renowned for being one of the best places in the UK to watch the sunset, a trip to Rhossili Bay will always guarantee an unforgettable experience. If you’re feeling adventurous you can also brave the journey across to ‘Worm’s Head’, but be careful – it’s only accessible at low tide!

Rhossili Sunset #2 – Kat Shaw

3) Oxwich

With easy access and an incredibly flat surface, Oxwich is particularly popular with water sports enthusiasts, dog walkers and families. Just around the corner the sand dunes are the perfect place to let the kids run around, that is if they aren’t tired out from swimming and building sandcastles first.

Oxwich Dunes – geographyalltheway.com

4) Langland

One of the Gower’s most popular beaches, Langland is easily recognisable by the rows of picturesque green beach huts. With nearby tennis courts and a golf club, if the sun hasn’t come out to play, there’s always somewhere where you can go and have fun!

Langland Beach huts – Gareth Lovering

It’s true to say that Spanish Christmas cuisine used to consist of rather ‘humble’ dishes, however, over the years many traditional platters have been transformed into elegant and elaborate meals. Of course, what will never change is the amount of sweets and cakes brought out for dessert! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; we should begin with the starting point of any Christmas dinner – the snacks. In Catalonia, ham, various local types’ of sausage, shrimp, smoked salmon as well as a few types of pâté and cheese are served to get the ball rolling. It’s also common to eat a Christmas soup or cream, either made of nuts, poultry or fish to wash down these rich starters.

Although appetizers vary slightly from household to household, generally everyone follows the same rules and seafood, sausage and canapés are served. The main course is always the one which causes the most panic as people question whether to prepare a bird (duck, capon, turkey…) or a classic Catalan escudella (a type of stew.) It’s also common to eat some fish such as cod on Christmas day. My advice is that given the amount of choice you have of the many Spanish and Catalan Christmas dishes; try a bit of everything!

Finally, my personal highlight is the numerous desserts on offer (that is, if you have room to eat more!). In a Spanish home you’ll often find a whole table is dedicated to desserts, with all kinds of sweets, turrón (nougat), dátiles (dates), mazapán (marzipan) or alfajores, a fruit salad and some liquor laid out for everyone to enjoy.

Other Spanish holiday related food traditions is to eat 12 lucky grapes and a glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve, and during the Three Kings Day the people usually eat a Roscón de Reyes.

It’s not even November and I’m already dreaming of New Years Eve in Barcelona. The weekends are amazing and so what will New Years Eve bring!? When I came to Barcelona on the plane I was able to enjoy the view as we approached the airport. For me the stand out building on the beach front is the W-Hotel.

So when planning my Barcelona New Years Eve the first thing that crossed my mind was the W-Hotel, the hotel is similar to the Burj al Arab and shines like a beacon on the beach. The W-hotel is home to one of the best cocktail bars in Barcelona which sits on the 26th floor giving a panoramic view of the city. Often I find my daydreams taking me up to the 26th floor!

I don’t want to bet my whole night on this hotel, the possibility of entering this luxurious event is low. The main clubs in Barcelona have special themes and it is important to buy the tickets up front, or else you can not get in!

Some of the other popular places in Barcelona are Plaza Real, the beach of Barceloneta and Plaza Cataluña. Plaza Real is an alternative way to starting the night. You can sit on the terrace with a drink and tapas while watching others make their way to the festivities. Plaza real is the meeting place to start your evening and for others which guarantees a great atmosphere! Barceloneta attracts around 8000 people on the beach to enjoy the party with special guest performances from famous DJ’s and a firework show at 00:00.

Off course there are more attractions in Barcelona, the European capital that never sleeps!

When you have experiences of your own, don’t be afraid to share it with us! We are looking forward to hear from you……HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Saludos!

When you think of Hawaii, you instantly picture people grabbing their boards and heading for the ‘big swells’. When you think of Portugal, on the other hand, all that really comes to mind is British people strolling along the beaches trying to find their way back to their hotel after happy hour at the bar!

What a lot of people don’t realise is that Portugal is actually a prime destination for surfers. Yes, I know, I didn’t believe it at first either. Till I pitched up at the beach town of Malháo, during a tour of Europe with some friends of mine, and couldn’t help but notice the amount of people in wetsuits heading down to the beach…

Intrigued with what looked like a school of seals making their break for the sea, my mates and I followed them to the shore and we were taken aback by the 10 foot waves that slowly broke against the rocky shore. All of this was just by chance, I have to admit – I was indeed one of those tourists searching for the bright lights of the hotel.

Unprepared and unaware of the challenge that awaited us, we found a local surf shop that rented out boards and wetsuits so we could attempt to blend in with crowd. Nice idea, but what actually happened was that we resembled beached whales more than the Patrick Swayze bad boy image we were aiming for.

This didn’t deter us at all, though. Once we were able to figure how to keep our balance on the board we were overwhelmed by our progress and were able to last for a whole three seconds…not impressive but definitely progress!

After our pitiful attempts at trying to fulfil our Point Break moment, we retreated to the beach to watch how the professionals do it. Despite the twangs of jealousy, it was simply magical to see how the true surfers effortlessly glide on any wave that came their way.

So anytime you’re near the coast line of Portugal, I highly recommend that you take advantage of the opportunity to re-enact your own Hawaii moment and ‘hang-ten’ with the other beach boys.

For any traveler preparing on coming to Scotland there are three characteristics that are worldly known about the Scottish, their instantly likeable but yet obscure accent, the fact that they are the pioneers of creating one of the most consumed alcoholic beverages globally and men in skirts (or to any other Scottish person like myself – Kilts).

I can confirm all of these features are true, except we don’t go to work wearing kilts all the time but one thing we do fairly frequently is drinking and having a good time. And one of the best places to do so is in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow.

Glasgow is home to many different people from all diverse backgrounds, there are approximately 581,000 inhabitants and to accommodate all these thirsty Glaswegians at the weekend there are approximately 158 bars within the city centre alone. Bars are littered on every street that you pass while strolling either down merchant city, walking through the quiet area of the west end or jumping into bars in Sauchiehall street.

The city, like any other city offers many different bars to different types of people but one thing you will find in the lively city is that alcohol is cheap too, and you wonder why we get such a bad image…

Here is a shortlist of must go places if you ever manage to grab a “wee dram” in this dynamic metropolis.

Pre-Drinks/ The warm-up

The Counting House – George Square

The Counting house is central and usually swarming with people doing the same as you, taking advantage of the cheap alcohol. Not only does it sell cheap pints from all over the world but you can also have some bar food for preparing for the journey ahead.

Merchant City Tour

After preparations and meeting up with your fellow companions, one of the options is to hit the more luxurious end of the city (who would have thought luxury and Glasgow would co-exist). Just a five minute walk from the counting house there is an entire square dedicated to bars and clubs.

Two of the best bars that stand out from the rest are, Metropolitan and Corinthian.

The Metropolitan serves beautiful cocktails in a low lightened bar with a price to match as you would expect but if you were being adventurous try out their white Russian, Definitely worth trying.

The Corinthian is a busy place just like the counting house but is slightly more sophisticated by serving world beers for the men and cocktails for the ladies. The interior is great which is surrounded by a feel good atmosphere. Music is regularly played by a resident DJ. By resident DJ, I mean someone who plays up-to-date pop songs (unfortunately for the slightly older generation no “Sweet Caroline”).

Bath Street

This street in the city centre is the answer to all the young and trendy looking to break away from the normal student bars located on Sauchiehall Street but can certainly accommodate in terms of price too. Mainly located here are the night clubs that can sometimes attract players from football teams after a win.

Kushion

This is one of the most popular nightclubs on Bath Street, and the best days to go are a Saturday and Thursday nights. This is usually when they are at their busiest and have the best music playing, normally with a mixture of RnB with electro music. While you are in here look out for the big comfy sofas that are scattered across the many levels, ideal for re-charging your batteries and moving onto another club.

The Buff Club

This retro and funky club accommodates to those with a taste in electro and house music. The majority of the attendees are sporting their Fred Perry polo necks and chino trousers. If you are a student though entry is normally half price, so do not for get your student card!

Sauchiehall Street

The Mecca for all people looking to experience a true Glasgow night-out. I would list the most popular place to go to but however there are far too many and you will probably be attracted into bars and clubs by the people handing out flyers. However, one or two that deserve an honorable mention are ABC and The Garage. These two clubs are huge and appeal to all types of music lovers, Dance, RnB, rock, indie, and house and sometimes 80’s music for the nostalgia.

Travelling from A to B could never be so simple in the city of Barcelona. In matter of 10 minutes you can be shooting beautiful photos of the Sagrada Famillia to witnessing inspiring views of The Magic fountain near Plaza Espanyol. The metro itself is so expansive that it stretches from one side of the city to the next and you can count on there being a metro stop within a 8 minute walk from anywhere you are located in Barcelona.

In total there are over 120 stops located in the city and the rule of thumb between each stop is generally 5 minutes travelling time and if you have to change lines at metro stations to reach another destination it normally takes 5 minutes to transfer to the opposite line. Therefore, an efficient and speedy form of transport

Cutting down on costs

The metro in Barcelona is well renowned for being the cheapest mode of transport for getting around the city, and this is true. However, you can save yourself a fair chunk of change by purchasing a T-10.

A T-10 is one ticket that allows you to travel 10 journeys, in effect this almost cuts the price into half, only costing you 7,95€. Rather than purchasing 10 single tickets for 14, 50€. You can wiz through each metro station without queuing for a ticket and having to carry extra cash while travelling through the metro.

Safety on the metro

If you have not heard by now there are pickpockets’s that use the metro to steal from unaware travellers, particularly tourists. This is not to say the metro is not safe, all you have to do is be aware where your personal belongings are and how to keep them insight and securely kept away in a zipped bag. By flashing money or other belongings will possibly attract unwanted attention that could see you become a victim of this crime. To avoid this entirely is to think smart and be aware of who is around. This does not only apply to Barcelona but to every major city that attracts tourists by the millions.

Opening Times

Barcelona metro is open every day, with the exception of bank holidays. This means that while seeing the many sights that the beautiful city has to offer that you will not be stranded at Camp Nou and will have to get a taxi back to your hotel that may be in Sagrada Famillia. However, with the exception of going out at night the metro does close at 2am from Sunday till Friday but open all day and night on Saturday. For more on times and what the metro also has to offer click on the link provided to plan your itinerary for your holiday of a life time.