The Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza are the best places for a fling, if you’re looking for holiday romance, according to a condom company.

Euroweekly news report:

MALLORCA is the second best summer destination to find holiday sex, with 35.9 per cent, while Ibiza took first place with 71.3 per cent. The study carried out by a condom company involving 2,000 men and women in Spain aged 18 to 25 reveals a general preference for the islands with Tenerife and the Canary Islands taking third and fourth position for favourite summer sex destinations with 29.7% and 26.7 respectively.

Top of the list also feature Valencia (23.3%), Cadiz (23.3%), Alicante (21.8%) and Cataluña (18%). But hard to get people from Málaga, Cantabria, Murcia and Almeria forced the lowest scores in Spain.

Contrary to popular belief 77.6 per cent of Spaniards admit that they have as much (or as little) sex in the summer months as they do in winter.

Sixty per cent admitted having had sex with someone they met while on holiday. Of these 7.3 per cent – the majority of these men – say they have done this with more than five people.

Almost one in two women claim they have never had holiday sex, while only a third of men concur.

More than a third of Spaniards have had sexual relations on the beach, but 15.2 per cent haven’t for fear of being seen.

From the Daily Mail recently:

It’s the excuse we all needed to indulge in that well-earned break - scientists say holidays can help us live longer.

A new study has linked travel with increased happiness and better health suggesting trips could even be prescribed in the future as a way to beat depression.

The Australian research identified how travel can affect three different elements of happiness, meaning the joy of a holiday extends well beyond those days spent lazing on the beach and could help prolong our lives.

Dr Sebastian Filep, an expert in travel and wellbeing at Victoria University, found that motivations for travel, experiences at the destination and the post-holiday reflection all contributed to the pleasure of a jaunt abroad.

The first caused positive emotions in the traveller, the second gave them a sense of purpose and the third a sense of involvement - all key ingredients of happiness.

The in-depth analysis was undertaken with 60 different travellers and a further 200 backpackers for a chapter in a forthcoming book, Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life.

The results conclude that travelling really does make people happier, which improves our health and helps us live longer.

The full process from booking and organising the break to remembering the trip and looking at holiday snaps helps people feel better about their lives.

‘I see an opportunity for a greater connection between tourism and health where holidays become a more important factor in leading a healthy lifestyle,’ said Dr Filep.

‘We know from studies in the US that experiencing positive emotions reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, or that optimists live longer than pessimists.

‘So happiness is good for overall physical and mental health and holidays are a good vehicle for experiencing happiness.’

Dr Filep even went as far as to say that: ‘Holidays may possibly lead to people living longer, as holidays make people happy.’

Although he is not advocating prescribing trips over anti-depressants, he did think they could play a part in the treatment of depression.

‘I see holidays as part of the overall treatment for making people happy because we now have research evidence that demonstrates a clear link between holidays and happiness,’ he said.

‘Happiness is the opposite of depression. If thinking about a holiday, going on a holiday and remembering a holiday plays a role in making people happy, than I certainly think prescribing holidays or travel could help beat depression.’

For more details about Lanzarote holidays visit yourlanzarote.net - included is a Lanzarote map

If you’re not lucky enough to win a holiday to the island (see the post below), how about some tennis lessons?

The News of the World’s travel section has just reported on it.

I’ve played regularly since I was a teenager but I’ve never had any lessons - that’s my excuse anyway!

The one thing I’ve always wanted to do though is try a holiday abroad with some proper instruction.

And what better place to pick than No 2 seed Nadal’s home turf on the beautiful island of Majorca.

He grew up playing tournaments here so I hoped maybe a little bit of his magic might rub off on me.

I picked a Jonathan Markson Tennis holiday and stayed in the four-star Hotel Villamil in the pretty Mediterranean town of Paguera. The other option was the cheaper Hotel Reina Paguera which has a huge pool and offers half board.

The location was perfect for both hotels - just 20 minutes drive or taxi from Palma Airport and a few minutes’ stroll to the tennis centre. The good thing was that it doesn’t matter what standard you are as the coaches sort out the right hitting partners for you.

It’s not for the faint-hearted though. Prepare for three solid hours of instruction, games and drills every morning for five days!

Our friendly group of 10 was made up of students, teenagers and mums and dads all wanting to hone their skills and play that bit better.

Fun

The programme has been devised by former Davis Cup player and top coach Ali Yenilmez who has had 30 years of coaching adults and children at all levels.

And each day the coaching team - we had ex-British county players Anthony McNairney and Suzanne McNaughton-Brown - focus on a different shot.

It was tough but fun and very rewarding, and I admit I had a few aches and pains after the third day but I felt much fitter and lost a few pounds in the process by the end of the week.

The popular club has 15 courts and a cosy rooftop bar and restaurant - a nice place to relax and make friends after a gruelling morning session on the courts.

If you want to arrange a game or extra tuition privately afterwards you can also book a court or an individual lesson with one of the pros. Expect to pay around 13 per hour (about £11) for the court or 39 an hour (£32) for a lesson.

The courts are in good shape and former Wimbledon champions like Nadal, Boris Becker and Steffi Graff have all played and practised there over the past few years.

And if you really are fit and sporty and you’ve got some energy left, Majorca is also a wonderful place to play golf.

One of the nicest courses - just a 10-minute drive from the hotel - is Golf de Poniente near Cala Figuera.

I played it twice - expect to pay at least 80 (£65) - and enjoyed the challenging par 72 course.

The fairways and greens are superb and the scenery amazing - as long as you don’t hook the ball into the trees.

If this all sounds too exhausting don’t panic because the hotel will help you unwind.

There’s a spa with sauna and steam room, indoor pool and hot tubs to soothe those aching muscles.

Beauty therapy and massage treatments can also be booked.

And outside there’s a sunbathing terrace and pool with a panoramic view of the whole bay to enjoy after a game.

Almost all the rooms in the Hotel Villamil have stunning sea views and are elegantly furnished with a private bathroom, terrace, mini bar, air conditioning and satellite TV.

There are two restaurants serving superb international and local cuisine and outside sun loungers and towels are provided. If you prefer, you can walk directly out of the hotel on to the beach where there are plenty of restaurants for lunch or dinner.

Paguera town itself is crammed with superb eateries which have a choice of menus - from tasty pizzas, paellas to five-course gourmet feasts.

Some of the bars put on free entertainment like flamenco dancing and there are also two nightclubs a few minutes’ stroll from the hotel, which also hosts live entertainment in the main bar every evening.

If you walk along the seafront you can pick up a fantastic glass- bottomed boat trip which costs around 13 (£11) for two hours and the kids will love it.

Delights

If you have a hire car, you can reach beautiful Port Andratx in the south west of the island in 20 minutes and enjoy a coffee or a lovely meal in the harbour.

Off course, Palma and all its delights such as the cathedral and shopping is not far away if you fancy a super day out, and there’s a bus stop just a few metres from the hotel if you are on a budget.

It’s also worth pointing out that non-tennis players don’t miss out either - they receive a £200 discount off the booking price in the brochure.

And prices for tennis players vary depending on where you go for your coaching. To read the rest of the article click though here

More details about Majorca are at yourmajorca.net and included is the Majorca weather

For the neighbouring island of Menorca visit yourmenorca.net for the current Menorca weather.

While the new Mallorca Rocks is making the press before its opening in May, the island has a famous music history that goes back to when Chopin lived in Majorca.

The Daily Telegraph recently wrote about it in their travel section:

In 1838, the 28-year-old Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin arrived on the Spanish island of Majorca hoping for an exotic interlude of rest and work that would revive his tired spirits and failing health. With him was his lover, the radical-thinking, cigar-smoking, trouser-wearing French author Aurore Dupin, who published under the nom de plume George Sand. Just like us, they wanted to swap grey northern skies for warmth, romance and stimulating sights.

“Sun all day, and hot; everyone in summer clothing,” Chopin wrote home gleefully on November 19. His letters read like a brochure for the genteel station d’hiver that Majorca would become just 70 years later. “A sky like turquoise, a sea like lapis lazuli, mountains like emerald, air like heaven.” Accompanied by Sand’s two children, the couple settled into dreamy days of country walks and sightseeing while waiting for his beloved Pleyel piano to be shipped from Paris.

Sadly, the idyll didn’t last. The weather changed, Chopin was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the locals took against this unorthodox pair who didn’t go to church. Evicted from their palatial villa near the island capital, Palma, the family retreated inland to an abandoned Carthusian monastery in the hilltop town of Valldemossa, where they lived amid its sturdy cells for the next eight weeks. According to Robert Graves, who translated Sand’s spirited account of the holiday, Un hiver à Majorque, this scenic spot has “the worst weather of any village in the island”. “As the winter continued,” Sand duly noted, “every attempt at cheerfulness and calm was frozen in my breast by the gloom.”

Despite all this, it was a famously creative sojourn. While Sand’s description of the Majorcans as “monkeys” won her no favours, her book is both an enjoyable portrait of the island and an engaging meditation on why we travel. Chopin, meanwhile, wrote or completed some of his most loved works, including his Prelude in D flat major, appropriately known as the “Raindrop”. “His first days here were ones of great happiness,” explains the distinguished Majorcan pianist Joan Moll, who has studied this celebrated winter of discontent in depth. “They produced works that are intimate, contemplative and as luminous as the landscape. Then he realised his sickness was incurable …”

In 2010, as the world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, Valldemossa will be a key stop for fans touring the island. Once reviled, the two travellers are now miraculously rehabilitated in a whirl of commemorative events and souvenirs.

Every summer the monastery stages an acclaimed Chopin Festival, and visitors can tour the cells where the outrageous couple resided.

With three rooms and a garden terrace, a winter here doesn’t appear quite so bad. Star exhibits include a jar-filled pharmacy dating from the 1720s, an original manuscript from Chopin’s final works, and that long-awaited piano, which arrived three weeks before the party left.

So should we follow Chopin and Sand to Majorca? They were pioneers in what is now a well-established annual quest for winter sun, and their experience proves you can still have a fruitful time even if the weather is foul – but then, after three successive barbecue-less summers, we all know about that.

On the other hand, Majorca remains a choice spot for a winter weekend abroad. Easily reached and with more than 200 four or five-star hotels to choose from, the island is perfect for a few days of touring and tapas – come rain or shine.   To read the full article and see the photographs click here

For holidays in Majorca visit yourmajorca.net

As the diets and weight loss industries have become more popular over the years, it is no wonder perhaps that weight loss camps are becoming popular too. Although just now becoming prominent in terms of popularity, weight loss camps have been around since the 1980’s.

Weight loss camps were developed to help people wanting to lose weight do so away from home. It is easier to shed unhealthy eating habits if you are not in familiar surroundings. For this reason many weight loss camps are not located within easy reach of  town centres. They are found mostly on large tracts of land away from it all. This serves to make it difficult to order junk food. This is one of the reasons for the success of weight loss camps. In addition, the location helps provide a calm and relaxing atmosphere in which to achieve the weight loss objective.

Another advantage to going to a weight loss camp is the routine that must be adhered to once there. Not only is it necessary to eat healthy, but exercise is a must as well. Plus, with everyone else doing the same thing there is no feeling of alienation. Each person serves as the other’s cheerleader by encouraging them through difficult patches.

Many holiday areas around the globe now offer some form of weight loss camp for those looking to shed excess weight. Although more popular in the U.S., they are springing up in other areas as well, such as Europe and Asia. There are different kinds of weight loss camps. The most common ones are teen weight loss camps, summer weight loss camps and those that cater only to females or males.

There are also “fat” camps that cater exclusively to the morbidly obese. These types of specialty weight loss camps have residential programmes that last for months. China has also got in on the action. The country’s Amin Fat Reduction Hospital located in Tianjin works with really obese people. Other weight loss camps are more like spas, offering a complete package of spa treatments.

A British husband and wife team has created a top class weight loss and fitness camp in Majorca, Spain. Mereo Boot Camp is based on a military style fitness routine, which is not surprising since Ian and Liz Robinson are ex-army personnel. This is the first such facility in Majorca and in the Balearic Islands. The Mereo experience is a week long adventure in losing weight while having fun. The programme involves physical activities like hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and runs along the sandy beaches of the Majorca coast. Mereo offers gender-specific and mixed gender camps depending on what makes people comfortable.

To read more about Mereo (prices today from what we see are under £1000 for a week) click through to Mereo Boot Camp

Gorgeous Majorca is the venue for a British run weight loss and exercise camp.

In the U.S. the development of weight loss camps is a thriving business. The number of them in existence indicates that they must be offering something that people are buying into. One drawback to weight loss camps for the average person looking to lose weight is the cost.  However, the cost is a small price for improving your health and overall feelings about yourself.

The NBC weight loss show, “The Biggest Loser,” is evidence of the popularity of weight loss camps in the USA. Currently in its seventh season, the show has spawned similar shows in a number of countries: Australia, the UK and Mexico. Contestants on the show have become celebrities in their own right. The trainers and chefs have also built up a following of their own as well. The reality show has led to the release of “The Biggest Loser” workout videos and gym equipment among other items. In short, it has spawned its own weight loss industry.

Another problem with weight loss camps is the difficulty to get a week or more off to attend them. However for those persons who can afford the fees and have the time, weight loss camps do seem to work. They provide the guidance and discipline needed to eliminate unhealthy habits.

Finally, weight loss camps help members develop healthy habits for life. This is especially important to maintaining their weight in a healthy manner and to keep the extra weight from coming back. In fact, good weight loss camps develop a holistic approach to weight loss and health. They not only use diet and exercise to achieve results, but also provide useful information and tips on nutrition. These camps work best for those who need help to develop healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives.

More information about Majorca and holidays in Majorca along with the Majorca weather are at yourmajorca.net