So, no cruise this year !

[barney]

Nope, we're giving it a miss this year and have booked a land holiday instead.

We were watching a couple for early October but have now decided (and booked) Malaga.

Last year we went to Malaga on the Oriana and were very impressed with it.
We loved the feel of the town and the' Spanishness' of it all.
Fortunately we both speak ok Spanish so got around at our leisure but obviously one day wasn't enough.

Mrs Barney had the idea of going back for a week so after intensive research, we've booked it.
The hotel is in an excellent position and the reviews are generally good.
Nice, sensible flight times as well.

So, a chillout on the Costa del Sol for us this year, but ...... we'll be back cruising next year.

[david63]

Isn't this part of what cruising is all about - visit a place on a cruise, decide you like it and then go back.

We all say we will do this but very few of us actually do so.

Hope you enjoy it.

[Dancing Queen]

We visited Malaga on a cruise for the first time a couple of years ago and must admit it wasn't somewhere I was particularly looking forward to, like you Barney I was very impressed not what I was expecting at all

[Quizzical Bob]

Isn't this part of what cruising is all about - visit a place on a cruise, decide you like it and then go back.

We all say we will do this but very few of us actually do so.

Hope you enjoy it.

Yes, I think there was some figure of 40% returning visitors suggested. We certainly did that with Naples, mainly because the P&O tour to Pompeii was so ridculously short.

[Kenmo1]

Barney - We have tended to do cruises for many years because of the convenience of getting to Southampton easily. Because of that, we have got rather lazy about doing other types of holiday other than visiting family in Sheffield. We enjoyed our recent trip on Arcadia to Iceland but we felt that cruising was starting to lose some of its WOW factor possibly due to sticking mainly with P&O, possibly sticking too many times to Arcadia. Everything has got too samey and we realised that we need to do a wider variety of things. We are now trying to make up our minds about what to do next and have considered - a) some Warner's Hotel breaks and doing more of Britain perhaps spread out a bit more over the year b) a land holiday abroad like you are doing or c) trying a different cruise line or varying our choice of ship on PO.

I'm going to keep an eye on Dancing Queen's thread where she has asked if anyone has tried a new ship or new cruise line to see what opinions people come back with and I would also be interested in a review from you about whether you enjoy your non-cruise holiday or whether you wish you had stuck with cruising. We have visited Malaga by cruise a few times and have always enjoyed it.

Best wishes for your holiday.

Maureen

[Stephen]

At the moment we are happy holidaying in this country which has lots to offer. That's not to say we are ruling cruising out in the future should a deal we can't refuse come along

If you haven't been before check out Alhambra when you are in Malaga barney.
http://www.alhambradegranada.org/en/

[Suekersh]

Barney, are you hiring a car for your stay. If you are there are some fabulous Spanish villages around that area which are worth visiting. We used to stay in Nerja and have seen a lot of Malaga over the 30 years of visiting my parents there. I always love calling at Malaga on the cruises.

[Manoverboard]

With a car ... Alhambra, Ronda, Cordoba plus Nerja and the hilltop villages of Mijas and Frigliana.

[RB1961]

Hi all
No cruise for us this year as we had to have some internal building work done and that didn't come cheap. We have been putting it of for a few years but it had to be done.
Got 2 weeks off beginning of September so we are looking for something at the moment in the UK.

Have fun in Malaga Barney.

RB

[Dark Knight]

I am sure you will have a great time Barney, after all cruising is not the be all and end all of holidays

[Andrea S]

Barney,I am sure you and your wife will have a fabulous holiday. There are so many places to visit and apart from hiring a car there is a good local train service plus day trips available .

Cruising isn't our first choice of holiday as the itinerary is what matters to us and finding somewhere that includes a ship we like or at the time of the year we want and in the area we want to be doesn't occur very often.

Apart from our various holidays we often use the local airport to get away for a long weekends to mainland Spain or Majorca. As you get older time is precious and in our case we try to do as much as we can whilst we can.

[screwy]

Well Barney, if your there around the 7/8th Oct look out for us, were calling in on Oceana.

[barney]

We are screwy.

We'll keep an eye out for ya!

[Meg 50]

we cruised this year, but won't be next year - nor (ocean) in the foreseeable future. We've run out of places we want to visit.

there's still Florence, but that's better a land stay.

we have been back to places we cruised into - particularly Menorca (also did the reverse and cruised to Funchal after we'd done as land stay there!)

Next year we're touring Ireland, and the year after we're toying with a Danube Cruise