Tenerife has topped Cosmos Holidays sales chart with a 60% increase year-on-year, report traveldailyco.uk

Majorca, last year’s number one, is now fourth in the sales list with Florida and Turkey before it.

Other Canary Islands have seen bigger rises in sales, particularly Fuerteventura (250%), Gran Canaria (100%) and Lanzarote (40%).

Menorca

The Algarve, Menorca, Shaem el Sheikh, Zakynthos and Mexico are also within the top ten.

“Whilst early booking trends indicated that this summer was all about the Eastern Mediterranean, the improved strength of the Pound against the Euro has resulted in a last minute surge of bookings to destinations throughout the Western Mediterranean and the Canary Islands,” said Monarch Travel Group Tour Operations Managing Director Hugh Morgan.

“After the challenges of the past 12 months, confidence has clearly been restored in the market and it’s great to see holiday durations lengthening from last year’s seven and 10 night durations to the traditional 14 night breaks.”

http://www.trivago have recently revealed the top island holiday destinations so far for this summer, and Majorca is one of them. Trivago is worth visiting to check out hotel prices.

Tenerife, Spain
Tenerife, the number one destination for British travellers, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands, and also Spain’s busiest resort – the island receives 10 million visitors each year. The island’s crowning glory is the Pico del Teide, the third largest volcano in the world, which rises 3718 metres from the base of the island. From its peak, travellers have a remarkable view of the island’s 350km of coastline, tropical vegetation, volcanic craters and lava formations. Tenerife’s wild nature is undoubtedly the island’s best feature, but the island is also well known for its beautiful beaches. The island has a rich birdlife, and many travellers consider the bird park ”Loro Parque“ a mandatory stop. The Carnival of Santa Cruz – one of the world’s largest carnivals – takes place every year in February.

Cyprus
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and while many associate its name with historical and political divisiveness, millions of tourists visit the island each year for its spectacular sights and attractions. As a result of its turbulent history, Cyprus has evolved into an intriguing and alluring blend of Greek and Turkish identities. The Tomb of the Kings, a network of underground tombs dating back to the 4th Century BC, are one of the island’s most prominent attractions, and the island’s many medieval forts and citrus groves are beautiful to behold. The Karpas Peninsula is also renowned for its breathtaking beaches.

Majorca, Spain
Majorca is part of the Balearic Islands archipelago and is one of Europe’s most popular island destinations. The island is well known for its nightlife and numerous clubs and bars, particularly in the town centre of Playa de Palma and El Arenal. Visitors are drawn to the island’s turquoise blue bays, pristine sandy beaches, antique ruins and historical buildings, such as the Cathedral La Seu and the Palacio Real de la Almudaina in Palma. It pays to escape the island’s touristic heart and venture out into the wild, however; those who do will discover the true essence of Majorca, in the form of idyllic villages, local markets and the traditional Majorcan way of life.

Gran Canaria, Spain
Located 125 miles off the coast of West Africa, the Spanish island of Gran Canaria is often referred to as a mini continent, due to its many different climates. In the south, the climate is tropical and dry; in the north, it is subtropical and dry. The result is a glorious diversity of plant and animal life, giving nature enthusiasts plenty to explore during their stay. Hikers will also appreciate the 2,000 metre high Pozo de las Nieves mountain in the centre of Gran Canaria, which attracts climbers from around the world. Another of the island’s main attractions is the dune beach, located near Maspalomas, a town in the south of the island. Culture lovers should visit the capital Las Palmas in the north of Gran Canaria which has magnificent buildings, such as the Cathedral Santa Ana. Another highlight is the old fortress Castillo de la Luz that is currently used as a museum.

Lanzarote
Lanzarote is the fourth largest island in the Canary Island chain, and was the first of the islands to be settled in 1100 BC. At first glance, Lanzarote’s sparse, volcanic landscape may seem bleak, but for those willing to look a little closer, many amazing attractions are to be found. Lanzarote’s beaches are particularly well noted, and visitors to the Timanfaya National Park can witness the otherworldly beauty of the island’s volcanic craters and lava fields. Unique experiences abound; guests will certainly enjoy the park’s El Diablo restaurant, where food is cooked directly over a volcanic vent, or a trek through the ‘Tunnel of Atlantis’ – the world’s largest submerged volcanic tunnel.

Crete
The island of Crete is probably best known for its legends ties to Greek legends such as the Minotaur and the tragic tale of Icarus and Daedalus. The ruins of the Minoan palace of Knossos, of Venetian fortresses and former trading ports all point to the island’s rich history and cultural legacy. Yet this ancient island has much to offer the modern world as well: Cretan art, literature and music styles (typically performed with a lyre) are very distinct, and have contributed greatly to the diversity and evolution of Greek culture. Visitors to Crete would be remiss if they did not explore the island’s many ruins and heritage sites, and the island’s fresh produce and Mediterranean cuisine will provide a tantalizing treat for the senses.

Palma Majorca - Some Great Tapas Bars Are Here

The Guardian in the UK recently reviewed the best Tapas Bars in Palma - to see their top ten click here

The Tapas Club

Fifteen minutes’ stroll out of the centre of town lies the Portixol area; a once run-down fishing quarter that has been spangled up with renovated fishermens’ cottages, a smart hotel and a cluster of excellent restaurants around a small beach. In a prime spot at the far end of the beach, the Tapas Club offers cocktails and plates of tapas arranged artfully on the gleaming bar. If it’s too hot outside, lounge on the cushioned area inside, while ordering up mojito and mejillones (Spanish mussels) combos.

Paseo del Portixol, +34 971 248 604, Tapas from €3

Bodega Bellver

Tucked up a side street around the corner from the theatre, Bellver is about as far away from Palma’s gleaming 21st- century tapas bars as it’s possible to imagine. Dark and shadowy, with shelves lined with dusty bottles and wine barrels, and rickety wooden tables scattered around the small space, it is steeped in history, atmosphere and the smell of spicy pork frying on the tiny grill beside the bar. Order up icy beers and pinchos and settle into a slice of unchanged Mallorquin life.

• Calle Serinya 2, +34 971 247 96, Pinchos from €5

Bon Lloc

A veggie institution in Palma for 20 years, eating at Bon Lloc is also about what’s fresh and available on the day. The set menu is created according to what is available from the market in the morning, with three main choices and two desserts. Chef Juanjo Ramirez uses organic ingredients where possible to create dishes such as spelt and seaweed spaghetti, and polenta with tomato, rocket and coriander. Reservations essential.

• Sant Feliu 7, +34 971 781 617, lunch only, two courses, €13.50.

Tast

Popular with locals and always busy, this is an ideal place for a quick refuel if you’re on a shopping trip in the centre of town. Plates have coloured rims according to price and you can help yourself to the cold tapas on the bar, or order from the very reasonably priced menu of pintxos, tapas and raciones. Pintxos (small kebabs) are particularly good and the patatas bravas are crispy, hot and smothered in a chile-tomato sauce that is delicious.

• Calle Union 28, +34 971 72 98 78; tapas from €2

For a Majorca map including Palma visit yourmajorca.net

The tourist board have been busy promoting Majorca and the other Balearic Islands for mid August to end September holidays, with Opodo reporting:

People considering a late summer break this year have been offered a number of reasons to choose Spain’s Balearic Islands as their destination.

The tourist board representing the archipelago pointed out that one of the region’s main advantages is its weather, with 300 days of sunshine every year.

Beach lovers will be spoilt for choice in the Balearics, with Salines in Ibiza, Cala Pregonda in Menorca and Es Trenc in Mallorca among the seafront hotspots being recommended.

People who enjoy a bit of celebrity spotting will be in with a good chance of seeing some famous faces on the Spanish islands, according to the tourist board.

Michelle Obama recently visited Mallorca, while Kate Moss regularly enjoys breaks in Ibiza and Formentera and both Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson own villas in the region.

Travellers who enjoy outdoor activities were encouraged to try some of the sports on offer in the Balearics, with both Majorca and Ibiza boasting an extensive network of cycling routes and most islands providing facilities to go scuba diving.

If you’re off on holiday to Majorca soon and it’s the first time with a toddler, we’ve found the airlines to be helpful and understanding.

Thomas Cook Holidays have come up with a guide that’s pretty good, and the Daily Mirror reported on it yesterday.

Flying with very young children can be a challenge - it’s frustrating for parents and other passengers when little ones play up.

Cabin crew at Thomas Cook Airlines have come up with the following tips to help families taking Majorca flights this summer…

COMFORT

When taking off and landing, give your baby a bottle or a dummy as this will help stop their ears from popping.

Be prepared if you’re travelling on a night flight. Some parents think their child will sleep but this often isn’t the case as the child is not in their usual environment.

Take a small blanket in case your child gets cold, as some Majorca flights don’t provide them for short-haul trips.

Nappy-changing facilities are in the aircraft toilets and there isn’t much room - dress your baby in clothes that are easy to get on and off.

Consider getting a baby sling for your journey. That way you can carry your tot and have two hands free for luggage.

Pack your child’s favourite snacks so you have food to hand if they want something to eat quickly.

If your child is having an inflight meal, be prepared with alternatives in case they don’t like what they’re given.

If you want to give them milk while flying, pick up some once through check-in/security as this is not often available on board.

Entertainment On Majorca Flights

Crayola’s Colour Wonder paper pad and markers are a great way to keep kids entertained. The pens only work on the special pad so you don’t have to worry about your child marking the seats or the walls of the aircraft.

Kids love presents, so wrap up lots of small surprises you can give to your child throughout the flight to keep them entertained.

Bring toys out one by one so that you can keep children entertained with each toy individually.

For more information about holidays with Thomas Cook Holidays visit their site.

They also do Menorca flights

Opodo report that Monarch has announced that it will launch new flights to Majorca and introduce additional services to Sharm el Sheikh and Gibraltar this year.

The airline will open its route from London Gatwick to Majorca, offering a total of three weekly connections to the island.

It already serves the popular summer holiday destination from Luton, Birmingham and Manchester airports.

Following strong demand for travel to Sharm el Sheikh, Monarch will operate an additional weekly flight from London Gatwick to the destination every Thursday between 9 September and 28 October this year.

Customers have also shown high interest in Gibraltar, which will be served by an extra weekly service departing from Manchester every Sunday between 12 September and 31 October.

Tim Jeans, managing director of flights for Monarch, said: ‘We have seen huge demand for seats to Sharm el Sheikh and Gibraltar this summer and have responded by adding these additional services to meet this demand.’

He added: ‘We are also delighted to be launching our first scheduled operation between Gatwick and Majorca in response to a surge in demand for the western Mediterranean this summer.’

Cheapflights Canada has compiled their top ten destinations for celebrities, and includes Majorca.

To read where else they consider to be celebrity favourites for holidays click through to them here

Meanwhile, this is what they have to say about Majorca:

Majorca, Spain: A favourite with German and British vacationers for decades, stars such as Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, Boris Becker (the German tennis champ), Julio Iglesias (the Spanish singer), Antonio Banderas and Sting all vacation here.

Leonard Cohen played a concert in Palma last summer.

This year’s Wimbledon tennis champ Rafael Nadal was recently snapped enjoying the waves with his girlfriend (he hails from Manacor).

Away from the celeb spotting, “real” Majorca is wonderfully lush and hilly and the climate is just perfect.

For more details about Majorca holidays visit yourmajorca.net

Brash or civilised? The Daily Mail’s travel section found it to be the latter.

It’s not hard to see why Britain’s pioneering package tourists in the Fifties were so delighted with Majorca. The place is breathtakingly pretty and perfectly charming. In most places the views have hardly changed since Chopin made his ill-advised visit 170 years ago (when the Polish composer’s lover George Sand called the locals light-fingered ‘monkeys’ their unhappy winter stay went from bad to worse).

Earlier this month we rented a house between Pollensa and Alcudia, on a swathe of flat land framed on either side by primeval jagged mountains. We were just a few miles from the sea but the odd distant mobile phone mast apart, it was deliriously unspoilt. Pollensa and Alcudia were also thoroughly delightful, by the way.

Tourism from the UK to Majorca has been going longer than you might have expected. Nearly 75 years ago, Agatha Christie featured the locale in her 1936 story Problem At Pollensa Bay (I imagine el butler did it).

It’s easy to presume that Majorca is simply an island version of mainland Spain yet visitors quickly discover it is its own small world: quiet, intelligent and very civilised.

Hang on, you might protest: Majorca is famously the island that boasts the inelegant delights of Magaluf with Rovers Return pubs, all-day English breakfasts and binge drinkers permanently blotto from eternal happy hours. True: but to imagine all of Majorca is like Magaluf is to suggest the whole of Wales resembles Barry Island.

Less than ten minutes after leaving Palma airport in your hired car you are likely to be very far from the madding crowd. Heading north to Inca and beyond, the holiday throng quickly vanishes. To read the full article visit the Daily Mail by clicking here

For the Majorca weather visit yourmajorca.net

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.

Two UK Sunday newspapers are offering the chance to win a holiday in Majorca, and below are the links to how you can enter.

Remember telephone entries can cost a lot, and if you’re not reading this today - Monday 19 July 2010 - watch out for the closing dates too.

For the Sunday Mirror one click here

For the News Of The World one click here

Both holidays include Majorca flights and hotel accommodation