Spending the winter abroad

No , I didn't know that! My favourite little hotel is Egyptian/Swiss but I don't know about the bigger hotels.

I had a friend who had a flat on a beach near Almeria. I nearly cried on the journey from the airport because the landscape was so ugly with plastic sheeting covering most of it to retain any moisture. I hate dry, arid countryside (unless it is bordered by a beautiful coral reef).

Plastic has spread all over Europe and into Scotland, though there it's not to conserve moisture - just to make the strawberries ripen earlier. In May, most of Perthshire, Angus and the Mearns seemed to be under plastic. Not a good look, but if it brings a profit...so be it.

It's true - a lot of almeria is covered in plastic. that is where we get a lot of our winter tomatoes, peppers etc etc from.
We went to the area around Cabo de gata, a national park, which is , i assume, still free of polythene sheeting.

Guess what is pumped into the polytunnels to make the tomatoes and peppers grow better?

CO2?

A greenhouse gas, of course.

The North of Tenerife is much nicer, more Spanish and not at all fish & chips.

Or near La Orotava near the West coast.

As I recently visited Canada it is really beautiful place famous for its cleanest
beaches,waterfall,spa's and night life.Well if you are planning to go for your holiday to be memorable you must require VISA stamp from the VISA companies on your passport, well it is very beneficial to consult with the specialist having past experiences are good.Be aware with fraud companies which provide Traveling offers along with VISA's .Try to consult some companies online which actually good and provide help not only provide VISA as well as helping in giving you scenario of the place and hotels including food,spa etc.
Some of the requirements for applying VISA

You can get a 12 month working holiday visa

To be eligible, applicants need to meet the following requirements:

* hold a passport issued by an eligible country or region
* be aged between 18 and 30 (inclusive) at the time of applying
* not have accompanying dependent children
* meet health, character and financial requirements
Canada Visa

I think you are talking of work not holidays , we were there 18 months ago and didn"t require one

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hmm - do you think he might have got his target audience a bit wrong here? Anyone between eighteen and thirty?

Just came back from Canada a few weeks ago and we didn't need a visa!

if only..

Mamie Eek ! bring it on , . Alison were were u / then we can compare notes if u not busy

Message deleted by Gransnet.

Do be careful about house insurance if you go for more than a month. Many policies will not let you leave a house empty for longer.

Ten years ago, we stayed in Mevagissey for the Christmas hols, just the 2 of us. It was the best! A year later my husband died, but the memories, aah, walking on Pentewan beach in the snow, cosy & safe in the car, watching huge waves crahing up onto the road - in the dark, too! We had the headlights on.
Midnight Mass & carols in a beautiful church in the village by candle-light on Christmas Eve. My birthday the next morning; John cooked a crown turkey dinner with all the trimmings, just for me. We ate by the huge picture window, that looks out over the bay, seeing sea gulls & jackdaws flying everywhere in the cold, grey air.

joyful what a lovely tale, I can picture it and how wonderful that you can end it with a smiley face. Thanks for (sharing) the memories!

I remember mevagissey. My late husband and I sailed into it on a couple of occasions and moored up alongside a very smelly scallop dredger. The fresh scallops were delicious though.

Oh thanks girls! They are precious memories; we also holidayed there during the Summer a couple of times. The one at the ex-fisherman's cottage is indelibly in my memory - the smell! Three stories high, approached up ladder-like stairs, in the basement where the fishing nets were once stored, was the loo & shower stall. The most revolting stench pervaded the whole house, right up to the attic [our bedroom]. It was tracked down to the shower drain, & the only cure we could find to stop it, was to stuff the hole with a flannel! And that didn't really work. We went out all day to escape.
Each day at dawn, the sea-gulls nesting on the opposite roof-top to us, woke us with urgent cries, 'Fish coming!' Their babies, so cute with spots on, would tap the red dot on a parents beak for food, which revoltingly but normal, was re-gurgitated for them. Ooh, Nature, red in tooth & claw!
Excellent fish & chip shops, great restaurents, homely coffee shops, curiosity shops, they should let me write their advertising brochures!

It's not quite what you asked, but we have friends who rent apartments in cities for a month or two and live like the natives, eg they have been to both Paris and Rome. I think it's an excellent idea and we might try it when we can no longer go on long haul flights.

Can't beat Cornwall, as I live here and love it to bits, but I also like to go away to Portugal for a month every Winter, to find some more sun. this year it will be Madeira all inclusive, can't wait. as it has gone cooler here now. the Azores is also quite nice, but maybe not Winter.

We also have enjoyed several autumn holidays in Madeira, when the weather was a little changeable but on the whole quite hot. Left Exeter having ice scraped from the wings of the plane, arrived to the pilot telling us it was 73 degrees F. Plenty of trips, etc. to see the beautiful scenery, some of them did lead to the obligatory basket factory, etc., but also gave us the chance to see so much of the island. Levada walks very enjoyable, too. Nannynet, I too live in Cornwall and can understand why you need to get away - those days of mizzle can be never-ending!