Ultimate Vacation Spots

Imagine that ‘dream’ yachting adventure you’ve always wanted – then just book it!

You don’t need to wait and see what each yacht can offer and then have to choose between them – you should be able to decide on the things you want your boat to offer and then find your perfect boat!

Whether it’s got to be large enough for 30 guests or small enough for just the family – no worries; whether you need to stay in touch with your business with a large wi-fi office space or you want to get away from it all with plenty of outside space – no worries; whether you want a large crew to supply your needs or if you want a small launch boat available so that you can entertain yourself on land – no worries!

On your hand-picked luxury yacht charter - you’re the boss!

How Do You Find The Perfect Yacht?
You could use a travel agent, ask a friend or trawl the internet looking for that perfect yacht – but I will guarantee that you will hit many dead ends before you do.

They might have the first few things on your list – like availability and enough berths – but then they might not be able to travel to the places you want to see, or they might not have an onboard gym or jacuzzi – so you have to start looking all over again. Or end up settling for something less than you wanted.

So, why not go straight to a website that can do everything for you; only offers the best, and which has the experience to know what you need – and to find it for you.

We are already busy enough these days – without having to waste time checking that everything we expect is included – so why not leave these things to the experts and you know you won’t be able to find fault.

And Fraser Yachts can offer you just this – an expert to find you the boat that suits your exact needs at a time that you want it!

photo credit: emuphoto

The Ultimate Yacht:
Just one look at their website will tell you how much they care about their customers and you can also see examples of their excellent standards with images of the crew and some of the smaller rooms they offer.

They haven’t just shown you a handful of the ‘best bits’ – they have shown you an image of almost every part of their yachts allowing you to get a true picture of all the boats they have to offer.

And they cater for all sizes too – whether you want a compact 26 meter yacht to cruise the South Pacific with a handful of friends or you want a 70 meter mega yacht charter for 30 friends in the Caribbean – it’s all on their website.

With access to a large number of the best boats on the water – your dream vacation could become a reality for you. So all you need to decide is when you want to go – and they will do the rest!

Looking at some of the boats available – this would be so much better than hiring 5 or 6 rooms in a hotel for your family – or conference facilities for that work meeting!

Imagine a week of totally undisturbed bliss in crystal clear waters on your super yacht charter! No interuptions during business, no other ‘tourists’ getting in your way and only having to unpack once – but getting to see as many different destinations as you want.

It puts ordinary vacations to shame!

If you love going to Festivals – then get to London for 2 weeks this summer!

There are 3 of these beauties still with tickets for sale and a chance for a great summer vacation – in the company of a multitude of music geniuses!

So, have a look at these festivals below and see if you can spare the fortnight needed to soak it all up – or whether you want to add a week either side and make a month of it to see a few more of the great sights in London and the UK!

Arcade Fire: Hyde Park – June 30th.
This 1 day event is something to get you started. There is no need for days of the unwashed in this place just to get close to the music – you can go straight home after and wash off your sweat (and any acquired food and drink stains) with the music still ringing in your ears!

Rather than being multi-tented and filled with event sites galore – it’s just the main band and a few friends singing their hearts out for you (and the other few thousand listeners).

Great for those of you who want to get into the spirit of things without taking a week off work and dragging round a holdall full of your underwear!

photo credit: Johnny Worthington

Bluesfest: London Venues – June 27th – July 3rd.
Rather than find yourself in a muddy field with 60,000 other people – why not try something more intimate.

Bluesfest is just the ticket, with smaller more personal venues on the menu. Great names in Blues and Jazz settle down for a great evening ‘in’ at some well-known and less hectic venues and play almost just for you.

The 100 Club and the Jazz Cafe are just 2 of the venues that will be welcoming some of the best inside during this week of live music – so make sure you find yourself on a comfy chair in at least 1 for a night to remember!

Wireless: Hyde Park – July 1st – 3rd.
After all the people from Arcade Fire have worn out the grass – now it’s time for the hardened festival crew. This 3-day event will mean some real mud, real music and real numbers!

With PULP, the Black-Eyed Peas and the Chemical Brothers taking to the stage – you can’t imagine this event not being great – and you could be there to experience it all first hand.

Fresh from the other events – and having made a few friends along the way – you will want to hang around and see some more of this country – even if it’s just to have a nice bath!

There’s More:
It doesn’t stop there for festivals – but you might need to travel a bit – or stick around a long while……..

T In The Park: Kinross – July 8th -10th – head to Scotland for this tasty looking event as most of the other T events are sold out! This might be your last chance to get in on the action with Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys on stages elsewhere……

Rewind: Henley-on-Thames – July 29th – 31st - for your retro ’80′s night-out with Bananarama, Rick Astley and Buck’s Fizz heading up the oldies listings!

End Of The Road: Dorset – September 2nd – 4th – with a ‘clean’ almost family-friendly festival with a limited 5,000 capacity – and showers! All very cosy – and that sounds great…….

Welcome to England!

Michel Thomas Language Program – “No Books, No Writing – Just Confidence” (CD).

If you have a job driving around, sitting in the same place for a period of time or if you have a lot of time free wherever you are – then you should really consider this CD course.

There are no text books to buy or read, no notes to take, no grammer to repeat over and over – just easy listening and some humour!

I chose the Spanish course from his selection although that isn’t his only language course available.

The Course:
Based on things he learnt through his time in the 2nd World War, Michel Thomas sets about teaching the language in a way that you won’t find with other such language courses.

I was looking for a course that didn’t repeat all the ‘normal’ stuff over again – and I found it here.

The creator of these courses is multi-lingual although he still holds a noticable accent to his voice – however, that offers a certain quality to the recordings. His voice is very soft, gentle, understanding and very characterful – it holds you through the course, and helps you through.

He tells you at the very beginning that the responsibility of learning the language which you have chosen is totally with him. It is not your job to learn this language through hard work and endless effort; it is his job to teach you the language in such a way that you remember it easily.

However, rather than teaching you the nouns and getting you to add them to a set sentance: for example ‘I would like to buy a…” and then teach you coffee/tea/orange juice/water/train ticket/hat/room for the night, he teaches you the verbs which are more important to speaking the language.

You can use the words ‘here’, there’, ‘it’ and ‘this’ for most things, and by learning ‘I do’ and ‘I do not’ can help you string a whole conversation together.

For example, rather than teaching you just to say ‘ I would like a coffee with milk and no sugar’, he can teach you to say ‘I would like to buy one of those please, with that, but I would not like that – and I would like one of those as well’. Something which could be used in almost any situation – not just coffee shop ordering!

He has opened up the whole world of the language by teaching you how the verbs conjugate and where to put the pronoun. Now I know that sounds a bit grammatical, but it just means that he teaches you the rules for the word endings and in which order they need to be.

For example: you learn a verb – say: to buy (comprar), and he teaches you (through examples) to say ‘I am buying’ (compro), ‘he is buying’ (compra) and ‘we are buying’ (compramos). Then with the same rule you can substitute any other similar verb with the same ending, so ‘cortar’ becomes corto, corta and cortamos and ‘ganar’ becomes gano, gana and ganamos. Easy!

And the way that in English we say ‘I am not buying it’ he teaches you to put the words in a different order to be understood abroad, which in this instance will be the confusing translation of ‘No it I am buying’! But through encouragement and repetition with his 2 students – it all fits together perfectly.

And I often found myself laughing at the students attempt to get it right when I had already shouted out the right answer! However, there were occassions when I shouted out the answer with pride, only to have got it completely wrong! Good job it is only me in the car!

The Results:
I have really enjoyed this course and found myself replaying the CD’s for the fun of it rather than because I hadn’t understood it.

Michel Thomas has a very interesting voice and accent, and his mannerisms really help you to pace yourself over the course and to remember key points – like using the correct stresses and pronouncing each letter clearly.

It was lovely to hear his students learning with him in the recordings and they seemed to learn from the course as easily as I did. I have already got my hands on a set of his Advanced CD Course to continue off from where the first course finished!

Do you want a free all inclusive vacation in Spain – for just talking?

Would you believe it – I know a place that does exactly that: in exchange for you talking all day to a bunch of strangers about absolutely anything – you get a great weeks vacation in the countryside with board and lodgings included!

The reason becomes clear when you investigate their reasons – they are an English Language institute, and they want their students to hear real English spoken by real English speakers.

They aren’t all noisy youngsters though – these students are sent on these courses by their workplace or to improve their specialist language skills and learn specific ‘jargon’ related to their industry.

Language Skills:
As long as you are a native English speaker and experienced or qualified in a professional or educational industry – you can apply to ‘work’ on the project.

Basically, your skills in the industry are far more important than your second language teaching skills!

Infact you don’t really need to teach at all – as the program is designed to get you to communicate with the students in all areas of life; eating lunch, group discussions, running events, tours and performances, etc.

You just have to chat to them as you would your usual friends.

However, you have the edge they need in their jobs – so you will be asked to run a workshop or do a short presentation on your main area of expertise to challenge the students into listening to a different set of language parameters.

Whether it is Retail, Industry, Metal Working or Medicine – all is welcome and all is important!

What You Gain:
Firstly a private room in a delightful location in the Spanish coutryside, all meals and some free time and included tours of the area.

Yes, you might have to eat with the students – but you will no doubt learn from them as well as what they gain from you.

You get to improve your people skills, make some friends and also improve your CV.

And you can even take your kids to the group courses – so a holiday for everyone – for free!

And before and after the course, you are welcome to take a vacation of your own. Seeing as you are already in Spain – why not head for the mountains, the coast, or the history – there is plenty of all 3 in Spain!

The House Rules:
The only rule is that you don’t speak a word of Spanish while you are there!

These students (or their companies) have paid for these courses, so that they are completely immersed in the English language – so even speaking simple words of their native tongue can break down their learning.

Even greeting them with an ‘Hola’ can reduce their acceptance of the many ways that English-speakers greet each other. Hello, hi, watcha, alright, oy and hey will all be lost as you try to remember to say Hola to them all.

And once you have said one word in Spanish, you may feel confident to add to it – or more importantly, they may reply in Spanish too – which will be very much frowned upon!

So, if you fancy a challenge – or an interesting week in your longer vacation – then maybe you should look at their website, and see if you fancy giving it a go!

When in Rome – do exactly what YOU want to do!

You don’t have to stick to the tourist track when you visit the beautiful city of Rome, you can have the place to yourself and see the sites that interest you – rather than the masses.

Located in central Italy on the River Tiber and close to the country’s Mediterranean coast, Rome has more to offer than the routine tour of the Colosseum or the Pantheon.

Plan your own trip here – maybe staying in your own Rome apartments on the River – and you could find yourself caught up in the swing of things and finding history and hidden architecture right on the very streets that you are your drinking coffee in!

The City Itself:
Rome has been inhabited for over 2 and a half thousand years, through the Roman Empire, the Renaissance and the ruling Papacy – and so it’s great buildings and even common houses reflect styles from all eras.

Used as the setting for many conspiracy theories and the site of many hidden catacombs, underground waterways and even temples, you don’t always see everything in the guide book.

What you need is to wander the streets, go into and look around stores and museum buildings and get a sense of the people who lived and worked there – not just the elite.

photo credit: bensonkua

In Rome accommodation is never hard to find – and you can get a room in almost any part of the city you were hoping to explore! Whether you want to be close to the coast, the big sites, the river or just outside of the bustle – you will be sure to find it.

Vatican City:
Part of Rome that attracts as many vistors as the city itself is the Vatican – a city within a city! Home of the Papacy, the Sistine chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and a whole host of other sights worth seeing – you would be missing half of Rome if you didn’t visit here!

This self ruling walled section of Rome has a host of magnificent and imposing buildings – and book after book after book claim to know it’s secrets. However a few hours spent looking around yourself, you will soon see why it has created so much myth and mystery.

By booking yourself into some Vatican apartments overlooking the City, you can see the staff and visitors around the site throughout the day and late into the evening – maybe inspiring your very own conspiracy theory!

So however long you stay, make sure you choose the best accommodation for your trip. Don’t feel that you have to find 1 place and stay there for your entire vacation. Being able to step out of your apartment and be face to face with an amazing building is a totally different feeling from catching the bus there in the afternoon with 100 other people!

Plan your accommodation just as you would your transport – move around to suit your needs and get the most out of your city vacation.

“Abbia una grande festa” – as they say in Rome!