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Cruising for the first time

Booking a cruise for the first time is a minefield. Which liner? Which ship? Which itinerary? I speak to many customers who have cruised previously and wouldn't consider it again. When I question them, it becomes very apparent that they had either chosen the wrong liner, wrong ship or wrong itinerary. Get these right and you will have an awesome time. Get it wrong and it will not be the best experience. Prior to meeting my husband if you'd ask me if I'd do a cruise I would have said "it wou...

How much sun cream do you need for a 2 week holiday?

As the height of summer comes upon us and we head overseas for our dose of summer sun, I still hear stories about people getting nasty sunburn and this takes me back to my holiday repping days and I was asked this question all the time “How did I get sunburnt? I’ve been applying my suncream every hour”. Well the simple answer is they were either using a suncream with insufficient SPF or not using it enough.I’d see fairly regularly people arriving from the UK in August. It’s 42 degrees,...

Turks & Caicos

Virgin Atlantic is launching a fab new routes directly from London Heathrow. Turks & Caicos, flying twice a week from 15th November 2023. The route will operate on the airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner offering 31 Upperclass, 35 Premium & 192 Economy seats. Book your Turks & Caicos holiday at RESFEBER....

The Maldives

Virgin Atlantic is launching a new route to the Maldives from Oct next year!  Flying three times a week, directly from London Heathrow.  Departing every Wednesday, Friday & Sunday, returning from Male every Thursday, Saturday & Monday.  This is fantastic news for our customers wanting a bit of Winter Sun!  ...

Our New Store!

In this blog, Director, Arron Mitchell, explains the changes the business has undergone over the last 6 months.  "After some 18 years in travel, it had long been a dream of mine to have my own travel business. In January 2017, I formed Platinum World Travel Ltd. I started the business in my spare bedroom and began building my client database. By April 2019 I had grown to such levels I needed to recruit a member of the team and was presented with an option to take on a store in Col...

Why you should book with a Travel Agent

Last week a journalist asked me this question quite seriously “With all the travel restrictions in place, you must find it so confusing?” I sat and pondered his question as he looked at me quite intently. “Well no I don’t”, I replied, “I’ve been doing this job for 23 years. I’ve spent the last 18 months navigating my business through the intricacies of travel restrictions and last minute changes.” And it hit me like a brick, this has become normal for us. For us it’s now norm...

Travelling in a Pandemic

Since March 2020 we have been dealing with the ever changing travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic began we introduced our “Book with Confidence” Promise. This is essentially means that the operator of the holiday is offering flexible amendments and a full refund in the event your holiday can not go ahead as a result of the Foreign Commonwealth & Advice Office advising all but essential travel advise to that destination. Since the Traffic Light system has b...

Cruising the Middle East

Well as some of you know I’m a big cruiser…. I have recently completed my eighth cruise in four years with some friends and we travelled around the Arabian Gulf.  Arabian Gulf??  I hear you cry….a strange place to cruise.  Well I can tell you I wasn’t that much of a fan of the Middle East before but I am fully converted.  Beautiful weather (Yes in January!), stunning destinations and friendly people.  We flew from London Heathrow wit...

Indian Ocean Drive - Western Australia

In November, Director, Arron Mitchell travelled out to Western Australia’s for Tourism Australia’s biennial Corroboree Event. Here he recaps on why you should visit Western Australia. I took the late-night flight out of Heathrow with Singapore Airlines to Perth via Singapore. I’ve flown with Singapore Airlines a few times to visit my partner's sister & her husband in Singapore, but it had been a while. The Airline is as good as I remember, with very polite and attentive staff. The flight l...

Cruising with Cruise & Maritime

When the chance came up to experience Cruise & Maritime’s Marco Polo on an overnight cruise, I couldn’t let it pass me by. It was a great opportunity to get to know a cruise brand I wasn’t overly familiar with and see for myself what our customers can expect from a voyage with Cruise & Maritime. REGIONAL DEPARTURES: A big selling point for CMV is that they sail from regional ports making them accessible for Ex-UK cruises, even for those who aren’t local to Dover or Southampton. My overni...

Enigmatic Egypt

When our travel partner's asked me if I wanted to go to Egypt to go on Nile River Cruise and explore the red sea resort of Hurghada, I literally jumped at the chance. Having been to Cairo some 16 years ago, I've always been awe-struck by the ancient civilisation of Egypt. Our cruise from Luxor to Aswan was to take us some 4,000 years through Ancient Egypt discovering temples, Pharaohs, life and death along this iconic river. How to get there?The river cruises generally start in Luxor and cr...

Brilliant Botswana

Botswana is different. It is often called Africa’s success story. Unlike almost every other nation on this great continent, since its independence it has managed to avoid the military coups, dictatorships and rampant corruption that have plagued its neighbours. It has managed to sidestep the pitfall of the resource curse that so many other African nations have fallen into when valuable resources have been found – in fact the diamond mines discovered just after independence have been managed ...

WINTER IN FUERTEVENTURA

For as long as I have been in travel, Fuerteventura has been nicknamed "Dirtyventura", but is that nickname deserved? In December, the week before Christmas, we headed out to Fuerteventura for a bit of winter sun and to escape the 10 inches of snow that had been dumped in my garden. Having spent some time in Fuerteventura in 2007 as a holiday rep I was keen to see if it had changed much. An early morning start to Bristol Airport for our 9am flight and we treated ourselves to the Aspire Lounge pr...

South Africa's Western Cape

It’s been 7 years since I last visited South Africa and I absolutely fell in love with the country. When some friends from Zimbabwe asked us to meet them in South Africa for a catch up, well it was a no brainer and I started planning our trip. Due us all meeting in Cape Town we decided we would concentrate our travels on the Western Cape. There were so many places I didn’t get to spend much time in on my previous trip, and many places I wanted to visit. We spent a week in our friends house i...

Post Brexit Advice

As we fast approach 29th March 2019 media around Brexit is gaining in momentum. We've found that information around a "no deal" Brexit is confusing and misleading. So we've put together clear and concise information about what to do in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Will my flight still operate? If a deal is agreed then the UK will enter a transition period. This means everything will stay the same until the end of December 2020. In the event of a no deal scenario, the European Commission has s...

Are You Covered?

Christmas is over, the decorations have been put away and the world has lost that Christmas sparkle. At Platinum World Travel HQ we over look the beautiful Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire but even here the scenery is somewhat dreary & drab. January is the time to look forward through 2019 and many clients are starting to think about their holidays, where to go, what to do and how to travel. The internet and social media is awash with Travel Companies pedaling their wares and services. So how ...

Don't let jetlag ruin your holiday

Travelling long haul brings new exciting cuisine, historical and interesting culture, beautiful beaches and glorious weather (hopefully!). It does also bring the dreaded jet lag that can really make the first few days of your holiday unpleasant. Here are my top tips that help reduce jetlag for me. 1) When booking your flight consider your airline, aircraft and flight times. Your Travel Specialist can recommend good quality airlines & times that will ensure your journey is comfortable and in a m...