Holidays without flying!

As a dad with children myself I appreciate how hard it can sometimes be taking little ones on a plane. Luckily my own children are great on planes however I have heard some horror stories!

A great solution to flying can be getting a ferry and then the transport is not a necessity but a feature of the holiday that kids will love.

A lot of people think ferries are an old method of transport and no longer used, the truth could not be further. The ferry industry is bustling, with many routes to choose from.

One such route is England to Amsterdam; you can see a list of the England to Amsterdam ferry routes here.

The ferry does take slightly longer than a flight but as I mentioned does have the great advantage that the children will remember it as part of the fun, not just part of the journey!

So next time you’re planning your family holiday, don’t overlook the ferry option.

Cheap Alternative to the iPad – Blackberry Playbook Best Price

My wife brought me the IPad 2 almost 1 year ago and it’s great, except that now I don’t even get a look in. She now no longer uses her laptop and chooses to use the IPad instead.

The thought of getting her laptop out, starting it up and listening to the loud fan puts her off. The laptop heats up after a little while and becomes uncomfortable on your lap, so I can see what tablet computing is so much better for just about anything. Play some games that don’t tax your mind so much, check your e-mail, browse the interweb or watch movies. But an IPad comes with a big price tag.

At alternative is the BlackBerry Playbook. It offers a 7 inch screen, HD front and rear cameras. Today I found the best price for blackberry playbook starting at £129.99 at PC World, discounted by £270.00. The 16GB version is only £129.99 while the 32GB version is only £20 more at £149.99.

Reading some of the reviews from Reevoo and there is some useful stuff to help make up your mind whether this is a suitable product for you.

‘great battery, lovely keyboard and wonderful size’ but limited support for apps

If you aren’t bothered about missing out on all the apps available at itunes and you just want to use it for general use like Internet browsing, email, camera etc, then this could be a great alternative and save you a few hundred quid.

Most of the reviews seem very good and I don’t think you can complain much for the price.

But the most funny review which I thought was worth mentioning…

‘Good Points i bought the playbook for my wife as a 20th wedding anniversary present, she was really pleased, she spent the next few nights constantly bouncing up and down on my lap…..thanks playbook…thanks blackberry… Bad Points i’mtoo knackered for any bad points.’

If you are looking for where to buy blackberry playbook, we recommend you visit PC World Here as they are doing the best deals at the moment.

Back Blogging after an Amazing Holiday

It’s been a long time since my last blog post and so I don’t just forget about this blog, I’m going to start blogging again. However trying to find the time with running several other big websites is difficult but I’ll do my best. I have just come back from our family holiday which was excellent. We all had a great time and I have come back with a clear head and some focus, so it’s back to reality now.

If you are looking to go on holiday and like a bit of luxury, well a lot of luxury, then we can highly recommend the Princesa Yaiza Suite Hotel Resort in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. Here is the website www.princesayaiza.com.

<< Here was the view from our balcony

This was our 2nd visit to the same hotel resort. We went back in May last year and it was even better the 2nd time. The hotel and resort offers so much for young families. The hotel has several restaurants offering different dining options to suit all needs. The food is amazing and the staff are excellent, friendly and well mannered and like to cater for your every need. Just what you would expect from a 5 star luxury hotel.

We stayed on Bed and Breakfast basis as we like to venture outside the hotel. You can choose to eat in one of the restaurants and pay extra for those extra nights and they do offer a huge choice of food. For breakfast you could get pretty much anything you wanted from their buffet. For lunch we tended to eat either at the pool bar or beach bar. In the evenings we favoured the Restaurante Volcan De Timanfaya.

For the kids, there is a indoor soft play area open morning and night, they have children’s evening entertainment shows every night and Molly even learned a song or too and some Spanish too (she’s only 4 years old!). They have a children’s pool in the main hotel with 2 adult pools. 1 pool is salt water and is great to just float in. They also have a kids club with 2 children’s pools called Kiko Land. This offers 10,000 square metres of fun-filled children’s activities, so plenty to keep the kids entertained.

The hotel also has a night club as well as several different areas where you can chill out in the evening listening to live music whilst drinking one of many cocktails. My wife was selecting my drinks some evenings and I really liked the white russian cocktail. The local beer tastes great and doesn’t seem to give me a hangover which is a bonus.

Outside the hotel offers an sandy beach on the doorstep with a beach bar open throughout the day and night. In the day you can get snacks at very reasonable prices and in the evening you can unwind with some cocktails overlooking the sea and sunset. The beach itself is very clean and the sea water is a crisp clear green.

As you walk outside the hotel you can turn left and walk to the mariner where there are shops and restaurants and some nice boats to look at. Walk to the right of the hotel and walk along the promenade to the port where you can get boat day trips and even head over to Fuerteventura if you so wish. We did the trip to Fuerteventura last year and didn’t really like it, well not the part that we visited but I’m sure there are other nice parts. Before you get to the port you will be greeted with many restaurants offering fresh local fish, the best steak I’ve had in a long time and many more local dishes. The restaurant owners are very friendly and create a great atmosphere. We were lucky enough to be there when the Euro 2012 games were on and watching the local restaurant owners cheer as Spain went through to the finals was a fun and exciting evening, with Fireworks going off most evenings but a great firework display especially on that evening!

If you are looking for a for a family holiday with a bit luxury, not too busy, but not too quiet, then the playa blanca resort is ideal. We booked with Sovereign Holidays. We also used them last time and they are very good. We had some big discounts which saved us a lot of money too, including free child place for our 2 year old, early booking discount, £50 back for using them again, 100 Euro resort credit, so I think we saved well over £1000. It cost us approx £2600 for a family of 4 for 10 nights on bed and breakfast. This included flights, upgrade to a family suite, private airport lounge, private taxi, 2 free entries to the spa in the hotel and the free euro resort credit. We were also greeted with champagne and chocolate strawberries in our room for being returning guests to the hotel.

Airport Parking for Brummies

Do you know of anyone who lives in the Midlands, near Birmingham, then please recommend to them Airport Parking Birmingham for the best prices on Airport Parking at Birmingham Airport. The website offers Brummies or those flying from Birmingham Airport the cheapest parking options available by booking online. It compares all the parking options from the leading parking providers in the UK to give both details of each car park and the prices available for the time of booking.

My tip is to book online and in advance. If you leave it until the last minute or pay when you get to the airport, then you will pay about 50-60% over the price you’d pay by booking online. So please recommend this to your friends who may need to use this airport on a regular basis.

They can also book Birmingham Airport Hotels through the site. Staying overnight is a hassle free way of traveling and means you can skip the traffic and start your holiday in style

Going ‘Up North to see the Family

As its Mothers Day this Sunday and My old mans birthday very soon and My niece’s birthday on the 22nd March we are traveling up to see my folks, my sister and her kids.

It’s a long old Journey and we have to cram all those gifts as well as our overnight luggage into the car, plus all the toys the kids want to take with them.

The kids love seeing their Nana and Pop pops as they are know and its also nice for us to see them and catch up. We don’t get to see them that often so its a worthwhile trip.

My wife and I have been discussing recently about getting a bigger car because of these long trips and because we struggle with the space when we do trips to the airport or UK short breaks such as Centre Parcs. So hopefully we’ll soon be getting a bigger car, maybe a cross over or mpv.

We recently brought a Portable DVD Player to keep the kids entertained on these long journeys and it has been money well spent.

Anyone recommend any new cars that are bigger than a golf, cheap to run and maintain so good fuel economy but plenty of space for our luggage, toys and anything else we wish to throw in the back. We may even go for a 7-seater so we can chuck the grandparents in the 2 back seats when we go away with them!

Investing can be an alternative to Saving

Savings accounts at the moment are almost a waste of time. Why should I put my money in an account to only get a couple of percent interest. Investing into bonds could be an alternative as you although you don’t tend to get any interest, the bonds could be a nice little payout if you win. Investing in Property is also another way to make use of that cash lying around, that’s if you have loads of cash.

As I have been investing in domain names recently to buy and sell off for profit which really helps to top up my income and allow my wife to not have to return to work, I’ve decided to invest into commodities such as gold. You can sell gold for cash and with gold prices at an all time high at the moment why not hey. Although its not the usual investment, its still an investment in domains, well a website actually. I recently purchased a website that had what I believe some potential to make a nice passive income from. Although it has cost me to buy the website off the previous owner it has allowed me to put that money lying around into something that I think will get my investment back in hopefully a short space of time and also make me a nice amount of money. The other benefit I find when investing in websites and domains is the value in the domains can be in demand to end users for much more money if I was to sell off at a later date.

How do you invest your savings, any tips, please leave your comments below

Welcome to London – London Olympics 2012

I recently received the latest London Olympic Logos so I thought I would share these on my blog. Quite Amusing and a little Looters Prayer to go with these photos;

Our father, who art in prison, my mum knows not his name, thy Riots come, read it in “The Sun” in Birmingham, as it is in London, give us this day our Welfare bread and forgive us our looting, as we are happy to loot those who defend stuff against us. Lead us not into employment but deliver us free housing, for thine is the Facebook the Blackberry & the Twitter, forever and ever… Innit

If you have tickets to the 2012 Olympics then this is possibly some of the events you might be interested in.

Up to 20% off at Spartoo.co.uk

My wife noticed whilst looking for new boots a while ago a retailer I’ve not heard of before until recently, called Spartoo.co.uk. Their website seems very good and they even offer some great discounts. At the moment they have up to 20% off using the codes I found on this blog at Thigh High Boots and you will see the latest Offer post has all the codes.

The discount codes for Spartoo.co.uk are valid until the end of the month – Jan 31st 2012 so you still have plenty of time to shop around. There are some good deals if you need to spend some of your Christmas money.

Spartoo.co.uk is fast becoming a leading online shoe retailer. They specialize in shoes and boots and have an huge range including the top brands and all the latest trends available.

How You Can Save This Christmas

Each and every year people are forced in to worrying about how they can afford to buy presents for all of their loved ones, ranging from parents to children. It’s usually difficult for families to have the extra money to buy gifts in the months coming up towards Christmas, but nowadays the situation has got even worse. With the global recession affecting just about everyone these days, with people getting less wages along with more taxes and higher bills to pay, it’s not unusual for some of us to not look forward to Christmas.

However, this doesn’t have to be the case. You’d probably be surprised when you see the savings that you can make by using sites like www.discountmonster.co.uk. No matter what gifts you’re looking for, ranging from large presents like televisions to small presents like earrings, you’ll always have the option to save some money when you need to buy a gift for someone this Christmas. There’s so many retailers that are listed on the site like ASOS, Argos and Tesco (just to mention a few!) so you’ll be spoiled with choice when you’re shopping at Discount Monster. You might be asking yourself why companies like these would want to give consumers a reduction in the price of their products, but the answer is simple really; not many people actually know about them and therefore not many people use them. So, make sure you’re part of the smart shoppers who aren’t afraid to spend an extra minute or two to save themselves a small fortune.

Discount Monster updates the site daily in order to make sure that you, the consumer, gets the most value for their money. They update the discount code/voucher list every day so you don’t have to use any other site! You might not think that the odd 2% off code etc. makes that much difference, but the average consumer saves roughly £500+ each year by using sites like Discount Monster. There’s very little work involved to save this amount of money too, all you need to do is : Search for a keyword or shop name in the search bar at the top of the site, click “reveal” to see all of the discount codes available for that specific retailer and finally copy the code and paste it in to the site that you’re purchasing the product from. It really is as simple as 1,2,3.

Quick Cash Loans until Payday

If your are struggling for money in the run up to Christmas and you are expecting you will go overdrawn then keep in mind the charges or fees that you might have to pay on top of the interest payments for going into your overdraft. With Christmas being an expensive time of the year, you may not want to cut back as you will want to make your Christmas special for all the family.

If you know that you will be able to pay the money back when you next get paid then why not consider using a Instant Cash Loan. These from the face of it may seem like huge APR rates and get a lot of bad press but can be very helpful to those people that either struggle to get Loans from high street banks or have bad credit scores. The process can be very stressful too with lengthy application forms to fill in asking you for everything from how much your earn to your inside leg measurement! You may also have to wait days before you even know if you are going to be approved the loan or not. Cash Loans on the other hand do not penalise you if you have bad credit. Apparently about 97% of applications will get approved almost instantly and the best thing is you will get a decision straight away online. Although the interest charges seem very high, you need to look at the loan examples. For example borrowing £180 for 28 days, you will end up paying back a total of £225 which works out at £45 interest. This can seem like a lot for such a small amount of time you are borrowing, but can be helpful for those that need it the most, such as when your car breaks down and it needs repairing, but you can’t afford to pay out of your current account, you may not want to borrow off family or friends and you know that this is a short term loan. This can work out less what you pay back than if you had to pay all those overdraft fees.

Like any Loan, I’d always recommend you try and pay off the bills, cards or loans that are going to be the highest in interest or fees. Then make sacrifices like cutting back on things that aren’t necessary, mobiles phones, sky tv, ipads etc.

If you are in need of some quick cash until payday, then visit www.cashloans.org.uk. They send your application to all the best loan companies offering payday loans to secure the best deal for you and to improve your chances of approval.