The beautiful destination that's a cheap and sunny swap for Dubai
A gorgeous destination in Turkey has been described as an affordable swap for a holiday in Dubai.
According to new research which looked at prices in several top destinations, a five-day trip to Antalya in Turkey will cost Brits around £640.
Meanwhile the same trip in Dubai could cost tourists a whopping £896, more than £250 extra.
Antalya is a Turkish resort city located on the country's beautiful and sunny Turquoise Coast.
Lonely Planet reveals: 'The largest city on Turkey's western Mediterranean coastline is both classically beautiful and stylishly modern.
'The old city wraps around a splendid Roman-era harbour with clifftop views of hazy-blue mountain silhouettes that are worth raising a toast to.'
Antalya's best-rated attraction on Tripadvisor is Kaleci, its seafront historic district that dates back to the Roman era.
Within its winding streets tourists will find Hadrian's Gate, the city's clock tower and the Tekeli Mehmet Pasa Cami, an Ottoman-era mosque.
At Antalya museum, visitors will find collections spanning from the Paleolithic Age to the Ottoman era.
But of course many of the millions of tourists who visit Antalya every year are travelling for the Turquoise Coast's spectacular beaches.
Konyaalti Beach is the region's best-rated on Tripadvisor. Sunbathers can enjoy crystal-clear water and gorgeous views of the mountains.
Another top spot on the Turquoise Coast, Lara Beach is known for its golden sand and stretches for 8km.
Jet2, British Airways, easyJet, Pegasus and TUI all offer direct flights from the UK to Antalya. The flight takes around four and a half hours.
Total Travel Protection, which commissioned the research, also recommends going to Prague instead of London and Marrakech instead of Bali.
But if you've got your heart set on a break in Dubai or Bali, one of the team's travel experts has shared their top tips to save on a luxury holiday.
Sarah Findlay, travel expert at Total Travel Protection, explains: 'Don't overlook five-star hostels. You can get rooftop pools, designer decor and private suites for a fraction of what you'd pay at a luxury hotel.
'When it comes to dining, lunch is the ultimate luxury hack. Many Michelin-starred or fine dining restaurants offer lunchtime tasting menus at a fraction of the evening price, with the same quality and service.
'It's an easy way to elevate your experience without blowing through your budget.'
And if you're looking for a bargain city break, new research has revealed the cheapest destination for a holiday that won't break the bank.
According to the research, Linz in Austria is one of this year's cheapest destinations to fly to with one-way trips available for under £17.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
3 hours ago
- Daily Record
Jet2, TUI, easyJet and Ryanair's strict rules ban this food and drink
UK airlines have a number of rules in place around what food and drink passengers are allowed to bring onboard their flights, with some banning items altogether If you're jetting off with TUI, easyJet, Ryanair, or Jet2 this summer, it's crucial to check the list of prohibited food and drinks before heading to the airport to avoid having your items confiscated. The rules on what you can and can't bring onboard differ between airlines, and breaching them could result in your items being taken away before take-off. As rules continue to tighten, especially on flights to EU destinations, passengers flying from the UK are advised to review airline guidelines carefully before heading to the airport. Following Brexit, food products containing meat or dairy, such as sandwiches, yoghurts, or even pre-packed lunches bought at the airport, are banned from being taken into the EU, regardless of their purchase location. And for those returning to the UK, because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease all passengers are banned from carrying bringing items like sandwiches, cheese, cured meats, raw meats or milk into Great Britain – regardless of whether it is packed or packaged or whether it has been bought at duty free. Here's a rundown of what's banned or restricted on flights operated by the UK's major budget carriers: TUI provides complimentary meals and drinks on flights lasting over seven hours. On shorter journeys, snacks and beverages can be purchased onboard via a trolley service, and passengers are also allowed to bring their own food. TUI However, TUI specifies that any food brought onboard must be "low-risk," such as cold snacks or pre-made sandwiches. The airline also notes that it cannot heat food for passengers, except for baby bottles. Importantly, passengers are not allowed to consume any alcohol they've brought from home or purchased in duty-free onboard. Even if it's sealed, duty-free alcohol is not permitted. If you fancy a tipple mid-flight, you'll need to purchase your alcohol onboard. easyJet EasyJet adopts a more laid-back approach towards food onboard, allowing passengers to bring their own meals. However, passengers should be mindful of liquid restrictions and rules specific to their destination. The airline states: "You can bring food into the cabin, although we do sell a range of delicious food and drink on board." There's a 100ml limit for liquid food, like soup or custard. "Hot beverages purchased at the airport are allowed, provided they have a secure lid to minimise the risk of scalding during turbulence. Passengers are also reminded by the airline to check the rules at their destination as some countries enforce stricter customs policies regarding food items. Ryanair Ryanair adopts a hybrid policy, permitting passengers to bring their own cold food and non-alcoholic drinks under its "feel free" policy – but hot drinks and alcohol are strictly airline advises: "In the interest of safety we cannot allow passengers to board the plane with hot drinks or consume their own alcohol during the flight. "This means that even if you've purchased alcohol in duty-free or at the airport, you won't be allowed to drink it crew are authorised to confiscate items if rules are breached Jet2 Jet2 generally allows passengers to bring cold snacks and some drinks on board, but restricts hot food and drinks, as well as strong-smelling or messy foods. Passengers are also prohibited from consuming their own alcohol on the flight. Specifically, Jet2's rules regarding food and drink on board include: Hot food and drinks: These are not allowed to be brought on board. Alcohol: Passengers cannot consume their own alcoholic beverages on the flight. Strong-smelling or messy foods: These are discouraged to ensure passenger comfort. Perishable items: Jet2 advises against bringing perishable items. Cold snacks: Passengers can bring cold snacks, but they should be packaged appropriately and meet any applicable security regulations. Pre-ordered meals: Jet2 offers a variety of meals, snacks, and drinks that can be pre-ordered or purchased on board.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I'm a VIP hostess for footballers in Ibiza like Jude Bellingham, Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard - but here's one major problem you didn't know England's favourite stars face
A VIP hostess who helps organise luxury holidays for footballers in Ibiza has spilled the details on their swanky getaways. Alis Moore, a director at Faith Concierge, has been working in the luxury experience sector ever since becoming pals with Wayne Lineker eight years ago. She's brushed shoulders with the great and good of English football including Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Kieran Trippier - and even shared a recent snap with Jude and Jobe Bellingham. Initially she worked in a more hands-on role - doing stars' shopping, taking them to the best beach clubs, getting them on their boats - but she has since graduated to a role upstairs and oversees a crew of 10 hostesses. Faith has deals with around 200 rentable boats around the Spanish island, with the cheapest costing around £1,000 per day, and the most expensive soaring to £20,000 for the players who want the grooviest parties. But it turns out the stars often do prefer substance over style - at least when it comes to what cars they zip around in. 'We do offer Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but in Ibiza the players want to take their friendship groups so it's about the bigger cars,' Alis tells Mail Sport. 'The G-wagons and Range Rovers are always popular! 'We usually put together the itinerary for them. Because we've been here so long, we know the best places to go. So we'll tailor-make it for them. 'Some of them want to party for 10 days straight! 'But some of them want to come for a chilled time with their family, it's not just the party stuff. A lot of them just want a relaxing holiday and to stay out of the limelight. 'The island caters to everybody - there's an amazing standard of food and hotels. All the best international DJs are here every night of the week.' One man who has contributed to Ibiza's boom in popularity among footballers more than most is Wayne Lineker. In 2012, he launched the party resort Ocean Beach - known as O Beach - famed for its poolside parties and DJ performances. Arne Slot was seen living it up there last month, following the Reds' Premier League triumph, and even got a cheeky kiss on the cheek by Lineker. Meanwhile, the Bellingham brothers enjoyed several beverages with their pals, and Lineker, as they sat in an exclusive VIP area. Jack Grealish is a regular at Ocean Beach with Lineker once joking about the prospect of a four-week loan deal for the Manchester City man at his beach club, following his omission from the England Euro 2024 squad. And it is believed that YouTuber KSI spent a whopping £51,000 on 600 bottles of champagne during his trip to Ocean Beach in June 2023. Don't scratch your eyes, that is a real sentence. It's not all fun and games, though. There is a serious side to the pleasure - security. Alis tells Mail Sport: 'A lot of footballers get targeted by organised crime out here. If people see footballers out in the clubs spending lots of money, they can get targeted. 'People follow them home and there have been robberies in the past. 'If I know we've got a big name coming out, first of all, we would only ever put them in a villa where we trust the owner. We have lots of our properties exclusively - you won't find them on AirBnB or other websites. If you were to book them, it's quite easy for someone to copy the keys. 'We do a lot of private villas so they're not as easily accessible. We can also provide 24/7 villa security and personal, but a lot of them fly out with their own. 'It's not as bad nowadays but it was more dangerous after Covid. A lot of people were having their watches and jewellery stolen and there were villa robberies. It's not as bad now as it was a few years ago. They can relax more and enjoy themselves.' Mail Sport asks if Alis has encountered any particularly bizarre requests from footballers. The answer is no, but she does admit that players sometimes break the bank with precious marriage proposals for their partners. 'We did one last week, the footballers love to be over the top and extravagant,' she says. 'We had a proposal where the beach club messaged saying it was so over the top! It was a massive display with flowers on the beach and they said to us to not do it as big as it was a distraction for everyone in the restaurant!'
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Why do some airlines often seem to be running late?
Q Are easyJet always late? I am recently back from a trip to Split in Croatia. I had an early-morning flight from Luton, returning to Gatwick in the late afternoon. Both were over an hour late. Is there a systemic problem with easyJet, or is there other stuff going on? Robin S A All the budget airlines are sharply focused on keeping to time. Their business model depends on using cabin crew and planes as intensively as possible – especially in summer, when demand is strongest. I shall take each of your journeys in turn. Luton airport has never been busier. The home team, easyJet, is up against Ryanair, Wizz Air and, from this summer, Jet2. The first wave of flights begins soon after 5am, with the Split flight typically at 6.20am. Yet Luton does not have the same sclerotic pace first thing in the morning as Gatwick – partly because there is less incoming traffic, and also because there is not the same critical mass of aircraft trying to get on their way as the Sussex airport sees. On a 6.35am Ryanair flight from Luton to Vilnius recently, the plane arrived 25 minutes early in the Lithuanian capital. I bet the delay stemmed from flow restrictions in airspace over Europe: the rate at which aircraft are cleared to fly through the complex skies. There are serious problems with staffing at a number of continental 'area control centres' – the operations that look after large swathes of sky. Between Luton and Split, the most direct route passes over France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, with plenty of scope for congestion. Coming back, it may simply be that delays had built up during the day. Even though airlines try to put in a bit of a firebreak in early afternoon where they can make up for earlier hold-ups, that is not always possible. Looking at Thursday's hardworking flight programme, the same Airbus A320 went from Gatwick to Split twice, with less than an hour between each take-off and landing, picking up delays along the way. On occasions this summer, disruption will intensify as pressure on a rather creaky air-traffic control system intensifies. By the time we get to August, it may be that a delay of just an hour is seen as roughly on schedule. Q We have a young family and are hoping to spend a week or two away in Germany this summer, travelling from Manchester – ideally to the Black Forest, and near a lake. What can you recommend? Katherine S A Germany is by far the most underrated nation in Europe for family holidays, and the Black Forest is an ideal playground. It is also easy to reach from Manchester: easyJet flies five times a week in summer (the 'missing days' are Wednesday and Saturday) to Basel. This is officially the 'EuroAirport' serving Switzerland, France and Germany. FlixBus connects the airport with Freiburg, with buses every hour or two taking just 55 minutes. Freiburg is an excellent place to spend your first couple of days: smaller and calmer than many German cities, with an atmospheric old town dominated by the towering minster. The Vauban quarter, south of the centre, is worth exploring. During the postwar occupation of Germany, this was the site of a French army barracks. But, since 1993, it has transformed into a sustainable community full of good ideas. The Black Forest – a beautiful, relatively low mountain range draped in woodland – extends east and north from Freiburg. Public transport is excellent throughout the Black Forest, and a 40-minute train ride will take you to Titisee. I suggest spending a good few days here, not least because of the Badeparadies Schwarzwald – a charmingly retro water park. You can swim in the lake, or just walk around it, and rent bikes for wider exploration. You could simply retrace your steps to Basel airport, but I recommend you make the most of the opportunity to travel through the forest. Head north to the splendidly situated town of Triberg for mountain walks. Then continue by train to Baden Baden, perhaps the finest spa town in Europe – with good facilities for children, too. From here, you can take the train south to Basel, ideally spending a day in the Swiss city before flying home. Q After the airlines put their prices up following the Eurostar shambles, I wonder when the government will look at rip-off dynamic pricing in the transport sector? Name supplied A Never, I hope. For context, yesterday, air fares between London and Paris soared to over £600 one-way as passengers whose Eurostar trains were cancelled tried to find alternative means to reach the French capital. The 'total chaos' – as Eurostar described it on social media – happened as a result of two tragedies involving people being struck by trains on high-speed lines in France, and the overnight theft of cable near Lille Europe station. Yesterday I watched as the air fares rose and planes sold out for the short hop from London to Paris. I can understand the view that this is the unacceptable face of capitalism: exploiting misfortune to make extreme profits. Yet the airlines found themselves the custodians of what had suddenly become an extremely scarce resource: transport between the UK and French capitals. They could have kept the price down to the normal £300 or so for a last-minute ticket (which is also roughly the usual Eurostar Premier fare). Were they to have done so, those tickets would have been snapped up immediately for less than the market would bear. I contend that there needs to be a mechanism for ensuring that people who are desperate to travel are able to do so. Those precious assets are allocated by price. As I have mentioned before, I was on the wrong end of a Qatar Airways cancellation from Kathmandu last November. I needed to be back in the UK for family and professional reasons. With so many seats taken out of the market, it was almost impossible to fly from the Nepali capital. The only international flight with any seats available was with a budget airline to Bangkok. It cost over £700 for a three-hour hop – in the wrong direction. But I also knew that British Airways had plenty of seats from Bangkok back to Gatwick for £500. Luckily, I had a credit card that took the strain and I made it back in time. Money well spent – which I imagine is the view of those high-spending passengers on the last flight to Paris yesterday evening. Q My daughter is stuck in Doha on her way home from Bangkok. She doesn't seem to have the same rights over there, and I was wondering what Qatar Airways' obligations are? Stuart White A The inconsistency of UK (and EU) air passengers' rights legislation is glaringly apparent after the closure of Doha's airspace overnight on Monday, which wrecked the plans of tens of thousands of passengers. Those consumer protections work only for flights beginning in Europe, or on airlines based in the UK or EU. Not yet left Britain? Passengers booked from UK airports on Qatar Airways flights via Doha to Asia, Australasia or Africa must be flown to their destination as soon as possible by any carrier that has seats available. That would mean, for example, transferring passengers booked from London to Perth via Doha to the Qantas nonstop. They must also be provided with a hotel and meals until they can be flown out. Similar benefits apply to passengers who were stranded in Doha mid-journey from the UK. Someone flying from Edinburgh or Manchester who reached Doha before airspace closed can expect a hotel, meals, and an outbound flight on any airline, pronto. But passengers in your daughter's position have no such rights. She is flying home from a non-European location, Bangkok via Doha, on a non-European airline, Qatar Airways. Unless national or regional rules specify otherwise, the airline can do what it likes. The situation is made more complicated by a shortage of seats. Widespread cancellations are reverberating through the airline's schedules, as well as on Qatar Airways' partner, British Airways. When normality is restored, passengers booked on cancelled flights go to the back of the queue, scrabbling for seats with thousands of others. Last November, Qatar Airways cancelled my flight from Kathmandu via Doha to London and offered an alternative a week later, with no hotel accommodation. On that occasion, I took a refund and spent a further £1,300 on a flight home – ironically via Bangkok. Your daughter may wish to do something similar. Travel insurance may help with some out-of-pocket expenses and a modest payment for long delays, but it is no substitute for proper passengers' rights. I hope your daughter makes it home soon without too much additional stress and expense.
