News from Little Hotels, Edition 16

Welcome to the latest newsletter from Little Hotels. Once again, it's been a long time since the last one: we've been so busy dealing with your bookings, looking for new hotels to add and, well, just enjoying ourselves really. As usual, I'll start off with a mention of a few new hotels on our list:

Recent New Hotels

I have always enjoyed the way-out architectural creations of the Catalan Modernist movement ("modern" in this context now meaning 100 years old!) and Villa Retiro certainly ticks all the boxes. This fanciful Modernist/Colonial creation by one of Gaudi's masters has been recently restored to impeccable standards, creating the only Five Star hotel along the Ebro valley. The garden too continues the same exuberant theme with tropical lushness and tumbling streams, waterfalls and pathways.

In the diagonally opposite corner of the country is Casa Noble. The name says it all really: it is a noble house, with tall windows, lots of decorative ironwork, high ceilings and fine mouldings. If that is not enough, the owner's knowledge of and passion for her little corner of Spain seem boundless.

No matter how many hotels we find on Mallorca, there always seems room for more. Sa Torre de Santa Eugenia is a real family business; the house and estate have been in the family for generations and even today there are two generations of the Lopez-Pinto family running it and caring for their guests. The restaurant is a real delight: an old wine cellar with a huge stone-vaulted ceiling on three massive pillars rising nearly nine metres.

We continue to add hotels to Little Hotels of Morocco whenever we can. The latest is Dar Vima in Marrakech, which is another classic riad in the medina, with its rooms arranged around the four sides of an enclosed patio. On the roof, there is a berber tent where guests can relax in true "Arabian Nights" style.

Walking Holidays in Mallorca

In the cooler months of the year, Mallorca is a great place for walking. Really we could recommend almost any one of the hotels we list in Mallorca as a base for a walking holiday, but one that especially stands out is Finca Es Castell. New for 2009, these week-long hiking holidays will take you on an exploration of the wild and undiscovered parts of the Sierra Tramuntana mountains, accompanied by an English-speaking guide. Then each evening return to the comfort and rural tranquility of the hotel for dinner and a good night's rest. As an extra bonus, guest's booking through Little Hotels will receive a free bottle of wine.

Morocco: A Diamond In the Rough

It was Mark, who deals with all things Moroccan for us, who described Moroccan tourism this way. Morocco is a newcomer to the international tourist trail and is still settling down into its own niche in the market. Sometimes there is a slight lack of understanding of what the typical western traveller expects, but that is more than made up for by the unique character of the place and the people. After all, we don't go to Morocco (or anywhere else, come to that) expecting a Disney-style pastiche. What we expect and what we get is the "real thing": fascinating cities, bustling markets and stunning scenery.

I was fortunate enough to make a couple of short trips to Morocco recently. The marina at Smir was an exciting project to create a modern up-market resort which clearly has ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Puerto Banus. The old town in Tetouan was delightful; very pretty in a scruffy sort of way, with a grand royal palace, and we enjoyed an excellent meal in a charming restaurant hidden up a back alley that I could never have found without the assistance of our guide, Ahmed.

Away from the obvious tourist centres, it is apparent that Morocco is a poor country gradually moving forward. I was quite amused by the incongruity in the shanty  towns on the outskirts of Casablanca, where the houses were bare concrete block roofed with corrugated iron held down with rocks and old tyres; and each house had it's own satellite dish! It was also clear that French is a more useful language than English when it comes to making yourself understood amongst the general populace of Morocco.

Christmas and Winter Offers

As always at this time of year, we have a few special offers to make a holiday booked through Little Hotels even better value:
Villa Marisol, Costa Blanca. Double rooms just € 80 per night from 4 to 22 December.
Sa Pedrissa, Mallorca. Reductions of over € 100 per night during Christmas and New Year. This is one of our favourites and we'd probably go ourselves if we hadn't already made other plans.
Finca De Las Salinas, Lanzarote. Special offer until 22 December.
Finca Malvasia, Lanzarote. € 50 discount and a free case of wine when you book your 2009 holiday (7 nights minimum) before the end of December.
Hotel Alahuar, Alicante. Great discounts for over-55s. This is another ideal place for a walking holiday.
Ca'l Lloro, Mallorca. 5 nights for the price of 4 during December. 7 nights for the price of 6 in March, April, May and June.
Fuente de La Higuera, Ronda. 20% discount until 7 March, excluding Christmas and New Year.
Cases Noves, Costa Blanca. Early  booking discounts for stays right through the winter and spring. Lovely village, lovely people.

Gibraltar and Gaucin

We visited Gibraltar a little while ago, one of the Pillars of Hercules, and Britain's colonial outpost in Iberia. It is a fascinating place to spend a day or two.

First of all, crossing over from Spain to Gibraltar on foot, it feels quite absurd to find oneself walking across an airport runway, an apparently never-ending expanse of tarmac, viewed from eye-level. If you come along when a plane is due, the barriers drop down, the bird-scarer drives up and down and a few minutes later an A320 or 737 lands in front of you. Moments later the runway is once again open to pedestrians and cars.

We took a fairly lengthy walk to cover the main visitor sights of Gibraltar. Starting from Casemates Square, an old fortress now packed with bars and cafes, we went along the imaginatively named Main Street, past the cable-car station and opted to make our way up the Rock on foot. Stopping occasionally to look out at the view over the Bay and the Straits was a good excuse to catch our breath and to wonder at how past garrisons had manually hauled big guns all the way to the top. Near the top we went into St Michaels Cave, a limestone cavern with an auditorium inside. It seems an unlikely concert venue, but the ranks of stalagmites and stalactites give the cave excellent acoustics and a concert visit will certainly be on our agenda when we return.

The going now turned gently downhill, a lovely stroll along the top of the western flank of the Rock with non-stop views and the famous apes for company and entertainment. The apes are completely at home close to humans, happy to hitch a ride on the roof of a passing car, and liable to make a grab for anything that they think might include food. We spent half an hour just watching a mother and baby as she fed him and then gently introduced him to some other youngsters (ape not human) while nonchalantly sitting on top of a wall with a 100 foot plus drop on the other side.

Next stop was the Great Siege Tunnels, first constructed during a Spanish siege of Gibraltar way back in the early 19th century and greatly expanded and extended during the Second World War. We skipped the WW2 tunnels which we thought would probably be more of the same and moved on to the Moorish Castle which frankly was a bit of a disappointment. Finally the road took us down through the back streets of Gibraltar to pop out again on to Main Street. From there a short walk along to Marina Quay and a well deserved lunch on the waterside.

We stayed at La Fructuosa in Gaucin while we were there. It's quite a distance away up in the mountains but a wonderful village location with spectacular views, the equally spectacular Castle of the Eagle, and a good base for seeing other places too such as Casares. The drive from Gaucin down to Gibraltar is one of the most scenic in all of Spain. If we had chosen to stay closer to Gibraltar, we would have picked the hotel Casa Julio Verne in San Roque.

Crunch? What Crunch?

We've noticed that while the big package operators like Thomas Cook and Tui are cutting back on their 2009 holidays by about 25%, the companies serving independent travellers (ourselves included) are taking a much less bearish view of next year. Really that's just as it should be. Undoubtedly people will be looking for better value-for-money from their 2009 holidays and that's where turning their backs on the packages and planning their holiday themselves can make really big savings. Each year we pick a random brochure holiday to a hotel that we list and do a direct cost comparison including flights, hotel, meals (if included) and car hire. Over the years we have seen savings from 29% to 50% achieved through booking with Little Hotels.

According to a poll for Monarch Airlines, 77% of the people asked said the credit crunch would not reduce the number of holiday flights they plan to take next year. These findings were backed up by the fact that 43% more people have booked a summer flight through Monarch this year than had done at this time 12 months ago. Obviously by booking now people are taking advantage of the lower air fares available for advance bookings. Likewise, although booking a hotel in advance won't necessarily save money (just a few of the hotels we list offer an early-booking discount), it will ensure that you get exactly the room you want, in the hotel you want, on the dates you want. And while package holidays have to be paid for weeks or months in advance, a hotel booked through Little Hotels is paid for on departure (with just a few hotels, there is also a deposit to be paid on booking).

In 2008 we increased our level of bookings by 37%. With all the economic gloom and doom that is rife at the moment, it would be foolish to expect similar growth in 2009. Nevertheless, knowing that we can save people money on their holidays as well as provide a friendly personal service, we will be disappointed if we don't see a further modest growth next year.

Finally, remember that you don't just book your hotel through Little Hotels. Our websites will also take you to car hire, travel insurance, ferries, UK airport hotels, airport parking and even some flights.

As is traditional at this time of year, we wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous and crisis-free New Year.

Happy holidays!

Paul & Margaret Melhuish

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