Travel Freak UK | Reviews, Rantings and Promos from a prolific traveller.

Lapland – Overall thoughts

By TravelFreakUK on January 5, 2015 in Lapland 2014, Rantings with 0 Comments

This review is the final part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about the trip here.

When people tell me they are going on a package holiday I imagine scenes from Sun, Sea and Suspicious Parents along wth images that are indelibly etched on my brain from a season working at Butlins, when at 10am, the parents are a few pints down with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other and their kids are running wild. I know that I shouldn’t have these images but there you have it.

Toboganning, Reindeers and Huskies Lapland

By MrsTravelFreak on January 5, 2015 in Lapland 2014, Rantings with 0 Comments

This review is part of a series about our experiences of our first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about our trip here. This section is written by MrsTravelFreak.

On the second day of our trip we took a 20 minute trip to a huge woodland area. When we arrived, we followed our own guide and the groups passed around various activities. We did tobogganing first. Although this was basically sliding down a hill, it was very well organised, a man was there to help everyone on the sledge and give them a push. Everyone got at least a couple of shots and the queueing didn’t appear substantial. The kids all played in the snow while they were waiting and Lee (our tour guide) encouraged them to have a snowball fight with him.

Spa Hotel Levitunturi – Lapland – Finland

By TravelFreakUK on January 5, 2015 in Finland, Hotels, Lapland 2014 with 0 Comments

This review is part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about the trip here.

MrsTravelFreak, the two JuniorTravelFreaks (JTF’s) aged six and eight and myself were staying in this hotel during our three-night stay in Lapland.

The normal process of checking-in didn’t apply here as we were given our room key and welcome pack on the coach from the airport. As we pulled into the hotel I could see that there was one main hotel block (that had the restaurant and bar and a few rooms) and several other buildings spread across an area of around three football pitches. Naturally, our room was furthest way from the coach so off I went carrying body suits for 4, 2 cases and a couple of JTFs!

Servisair Executive Lounge Manchester Terminal 2 – UK

By TravelFreakUK on January 5, 2015 in Lapland 2014, Lounges, Servisair with 0 Comments

This review is part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about the trip here.

I was travelling with MrsTravelFreak and the JuniorTravelFreaks (JTFs) for pleasure and had an hour prior to boarding. MrsTravelFreak and one of the JTFs decided they wanted to indulge in some airport shopping; off I went with the younger one to the lounge.

The lounge is situated upstairs in the terminal beside the Virgin Holidays lounge and opposite Boots. I handed over my Priority Pass and stepped into the lounge. It was very busy (the time was 07:00 on a Tuesday) with most customers in the chairs beside the full bar. A staff member was serving drinks and most people seemed to be taking full advantage of the complimentary alcohol. Whilst I am more than happy to drink some champagne at 02:00 in the Emirates lounge in Dubai during a transit, I am simply unable to drink lager, gin or whisky so early in the morning. Looking at the (very red) faces of most of the customers in this lounge, I think this is a good thing.

Hilton Manchester Airport – United Kingdom

By TravelFreakUK on January 4, 2015 in Hotels, Lapland 2014, UK with 0 Comments

This review is part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about the trip here.

I was flying from Manchester to Kittila (for Lapland) very early the next day and decided to drive down the night before and stay at the Hilton Manchester Airport.

I had booked the stay well in advance and had arranged for 2 connecting rooms to be assigned to us (MrsTravelFreak, myself and the 2 JuniorTravelFreaks). The cash rate for each room was £109 but the same room was also available for only 20,000 Hilton Hhonors points which I thought was much better.

MON8104 – Manchester to Kittila

By TravelFreakUK on January 3, 2015 in Airlines, Lapland 2014, Monarch with 1 Comment

This review is part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about our trip here.

I had driven down to Manchester the night before our flight. Due to a number of factors, we arrived at the Hilton Manchester Airport a lot later than planned. It felt like I had only been asleep for 15 minutes when the alarm woke me up at 05:00 – it’s probably fair to say that I was a bit grumpy.

The hotel shuttle dropped us off at Departures (which makes sense as we were departing…) but a glance at the departure board informed us that our check-in desk was infact downstairs – in arrivals.

I managed not to moan (out loud anyway) and took the elevator down a level. As soon as the doors opened I worked out where we were going… there was a [person dressed up as a] reindeer in the departures area!

Cosmos Concierge – A true customer-centric facility

By TravelFreakUK on January 2, 2015 in Lapland 2014, Rantings with 0 Comments

This review is part of a series about my experience of my first ever package holiday – a trip to Lapland. You can find out more about our trip here.

I received a small brochure in the post (about three weeks before departure) that laid out my itinerary and provided check-in times etc. along with a list of useful things to pack. I particularly liked ‘it can be as low as -30 degrees. We cannot emphasise the importance of packing properly, particular for young children’!

My First Package Holiday – A trip to Lapland

By TravelFreakUK on January 1, 2015 in Lapland 2014, Rantings with 3 Comments

I am not a package holiday kind of guy. I like to be in control of everything and the general idea of being the same as everybody else scares me.

All of that said, there are some trips that don’t really work well with the DIY approach. One of these trips was to Lapland in December 2014. I first noticed the deal on Secret Escapes, which displayed a saving of almost 40% against the list price with Cosmos. I discovered that the airline used for the trip (Monarch Airlines) is actually owned by Cosmos and subsequently, I was simply unable to purchase a seat on these charter flights if I wasn’t part of the package gang. I held my breath and entered my credit-card details and in a moment I was joining the many millions of people who travel each year on a package trip.

The truth about budget flights!

By TravelFreakUK on November 12, 2014 in Rantings with 0 Comments

For anyone that has booked a 50p Ryanair flight from London Stansted this will make you laugh – or cry. For everyone else, this tells the true story of budget airline travel.

(The humor is adult with some language to match).

For Sale – Budapest, Hungary

By MrsTravelFreak on March 5, 2014 in Hungary, Restaurants with 0 Comments

This restaurant is located right opposite the Central Market Place in Budapest, so it is probably popular with tourists.

Usually we try to avoid eateries that could be described as tourist traps but this one got mixed reviews on TripAdvisor and we were in the market place with two hungry JuniorTravelFreaks (JTF’s) so we thought we may as well give it a go.

The interior is basically cavern style with sawdust on the floor. The walls are adorned with pictures and messages written on the reverse of the paper placemats by previous guests and then pinned to the walls.

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