The papers are full of it. Even some editions of The Sunday Times this week devoted much of pages one, two and three to the dress Kate Middleton will wear when she marries Prince William on April 29. Articles appear almost daily about the Isles of Scilly because of speculation that the couple might honeymoon there and yesterday they provided a photo opportunity on a visit to Belfast.
But for every group of half-a-dozen people revelling in plans for the royal wedding, there will be at least one person who is eager to escape the razzmatazz. They are encouraged by the possibility of a ten-night holiday, from Good Friday on April 22 to May Day, using up only three days of annual leave.
Hotels.com, the accommodation website, has reported a fourfold increase in searches for holidays over April 29, with particular interest in Marrakesh, Tenerife and even Mexico. Alison Couper, a director, said: “The royal wedding is a win-win for inbound and outbound tourism, placing London in the spotlight for overseas visitors while Brits are able to take advantage of the extra holiday. With global media coverage of the nuptials, watching the historic occasion from the comfort of a sunlounger may be the perfect solution for sun-starved Brits. Then again, there might be some people already so tired of the saturation coverage that they just want to get away from it all.”
Trekking in the Himalayas, camping in the Sahara or cruising on a luxury five-masted tall ship offer a guaranteed escape from the coverage but plenty of cheaper holidays are available, especially in Greek and Italian islands.
Walks Worldwide’s 15-day Annapurna Sanctuary Lodge trek starts on April 16 and is ideal for those who prefer to stay overnight in a lodge rather than a tent. The holiday is limited to a dozen people, who will pass through villages with neatly terraced rice fields, rhododendrons and oak forests and enjoy endless mountain panoramas. The trip costs from £635 a person with two internal flights, ground transportation, 12 nights’ accommodation and some meals. Packages, including flights from the UK, are also available.
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Starting on the wedding day itself is a four-night trip from Marrakesh through the Atlas Mountains to a desert camp. The itinerary with Specialist Morocco takes in the kasbah of Glaouis at Telouet, Ouarzazate, the gateway town to the desert, and a final night in the Toubkal National Park. The holiday costs from £399 a person when four travel together or £499 when two to three travel, with all ground transportation, four nights’ accommodation and most meals.
A more relaxed break in Morocco is on offer with Fleewinter — ten nights’ B&B from April 22 at the recently opened Rebali Riads, a riad-style complex with modern touches on the Atlantic coast near Essaouira. The site has a hammam, tennis courts and swimming pools — and no TVs. The holiday costs from £440 a person, excluding flights but with transfers from Marrakesh.
Some cruise lines will be erecting large screens on deck to enable passengers to watch the wedding. There is no danger of that on Star Clippers’ tall ships as they cruise from Lisbon into the Mediterranean. The ships offer the activities, amenities and atmosphere of a private yacht and sail into small ports, such as Portimão in the Algarve as well as Tangier, Ibiza and Majorca.
A week’s cruise from April 23 costs from £1,259, with flights from the UK and all meals, while a ten-night voyage from April 20 is from £1,499.
Walking in the foothills of the White Mountains while staying in a stonemason’s house in western Crete for a week from April 26 or Cephalonia and Ithaca for a week’s self-catering from April 23 are alternative ways of escaping the wedding. Prices, including flights from Gatwick, are £640 with Pure Crete and £699 with Ionian Island Holidays, which also has properties from £394 for the same week.
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Perhaps proof that most of us do, after all, want to stay for the wedding is that Voyages Jules Verne’s cheapest price for a week’s holiday in Sicily is for the seven days starting April 24. With a BA flight from Gatwick and B&B in the Park Hotel Silemi with views over the bay of Taormina, the break costs £525.
www.walksworldwide.com — 0845 3014737
www.specialistmorocco.com — 020-7193 2461
www.fleewinter.com — 020-7112 0019
starclippers.co.uk — 0845 2006145
www.purecrete.com — 0845 0701571
www.ionianislandholidays.com — 020-8459 0777
www.vjv.com — 0845 1667035