H: Keith Betton, Host
C: Chris Simmons, Saga Holidays
N: Nigel Blanks, cruising expert, Saga Holidays

H: Hello I’m Keith Betton and welcome to Holiday ’07, the program which is interactive on the internet, so you can ask us questions about destinations that you want to travel to and we’ll try and find you the answers. Every week we’ll look at a different destination or a different type of holiday and it’s a case of really where to go, when to go, how much to spend and maybe how to book it. This week we’re going to be looking at the mature market, that’s the people aged 50 or more who travel around the world. I mean in the old days they perhaps would have stayed at home, but they really are globetrotters, travelling to Asia, to Africa, South America, really the world is their oyster. And joining me in the studio to discuss that is Chris Simmons from Saga Holidays. Chris, welcome to the show

C: Thank you

H: Tell me, where is the real growth area at the moment for your market, I mean is it Asia as I suggested or is it South America?

C: Oh South America definitely is the big growth area, in terms of volume it’s still Africa really and that type of long haul travel for the older customer.

H: So South America growing faster than anything else?

C: At the moment yes, yes it’s taken off and we’ve added quite a lot of new programs this year to cope with that

H: So many places you can travel around the world, so where exactly can you go? Well let’s whet your appetite with a piece of video

Video clip

H: Well lot of destinations there to think about for your holiday over the next 12 months, and joining me here in the studio is Chris Simmons from Saga. Chris, looking at those destinations, a lot of exciting places – I mean do you have to be really fit to do those sorts of adventure holidays or can just anybody go on those sorts of trips?

C: I think it’s really about finding out a little bit about the destination before you decide to go, so some of them will require some level of fitness, and you know talk to the company you’re thinking of booking with and I’m sure they’ll advise you whether it’s possible for you to do it, but in the main I mean some of the operators that specialise, like we do, we ensure that most people can participate and get to see some of these destinations that in the past would have been inaccessible

H: Because if you’re not fit for the trip then you’re not enjoying it and it ruins it for everybody else

C: Yes so if you actually specialise in this type of holidaymaker then each of the 20 camps you look at and each of the treks that you assess the length of journeys that you make each day will be assessed, will be approved and we’ll take into consideration, you know the level of fitness and the age of the customers

H: Right

C: That’s doing those trips

H: Well adventure holidays certainly have caught the imagination of our viewers, we’ve already got a lot of questions that have been sent in advance, so do send in questions today, we will answer them live on the program, you can do that by filling in the question in the box below the screen. So Chris tell me, apart from South America which we mentioned already, where else do you find people particularly going to, you mentioned Africa is the biggest destination as a continent?

C: Yes and in Africa we’re seeing some growth areas there as well, Namibia this year has been extremely popular, and you know we’ve added another tour. What we do find is customers like to do the sort of the big journey, the sort of South American Adventure or the World in One Country in South Africa, and then the following years they then go back and do a smaller you know a not necessarily a shorter tour –

H: Right

C: But a tour that concentrates more on a particular area that they like, so the glorious Garden Route in South Africa is particularly popular, which is a part of the World in One Country tour, but because it concentrates and spends more time in that region, then you get to explore and spend more time in those destinations in greater detail

H: Ok well we’ve got a question actually from Helen and she says she’s a well-travelled person but she says she’s looking for something exciting, so that’s a tough question isn’t it, where would a well-travelled person go that they perhaps haven’t thought about already?

C: Alright well this year, and it’s taken us quite a long time to get to this point but this year we’ve added a Madagascan Adventure and Madagascar is quite – it’s in its infancy of tourism really and it’s quite a difficult destination to crack, but we think we’ve put together a tour that you know is going to really appeal to our customers, so it takes in some of the sort of flora and fauna of the island, plus you know looking at the different tribes and the cultures, so that one we think is particularly exciting

H: I always think that valley with the bayabab trees out there is absolutely amazing

C: Oh some –

H: And the limas as well

C: Oh well, how many are there on the island, I mean it’s unique to Madagascar

H: It’s certainly, that’s a good one to go for because it is being discovered as a destination and there’s so much wildlife there that still hasn’t actually been described, some of the birds there for example, they found a new species of bird there just 5 years ago. Now we’ve got another question now, Susan. She says “I rather fancy going away for my 60th birthday with 10 friends on one of the long haul treks” – so a group of 10 or 11 people there on a long haul trek – where do you suggest for that?

C: Well trekking is, you know, one you need to assess the level of fitness within the group and then decide the type of trek you want, but you know Darjeeling in the Himalayas is a good one, Trekking in Nepal is wonderful and some of the treks in South America you know, go to Machu Picchu and some of the jungles and rainforests of Costa Rica are great for trekking as well. But the first thing I would say to this lady is check with the tour operator, because there’s discounts if you’re going in a large group

H: Oh right

C: I mean we give 1 in 10 free for these trips –

H: Oh excellent

C: So it’s worth looking around

H: So discount for everybody involved - or you could even keep quiet about it if you want and not tell them! I mean going up to high altitudes like that, I mean talking about Nepal maybe somewhere like Ecuador and the Andes, I mean is that tough on the lungs, do people find that quite hard?

C: There are some destinations that we’ve looked into and we’ve decided that, you know there are some risks with altitude sickness, and actually altitude sickness effects different people for different reasons, it’s not really an age thing, it’s more about how you respond to that climate, so we have to assess that. We go to the Himalayan base camp on the Himalayan trip but any further I think would be a strain for most people

H: Ok question from Nancy, she says “I’ve never travelled abroad in my life” – so that’s’ a good place to start “however since my husband passed away I’ve tried to live my life to the full – where would you recommend for a beginner like me – any tips?” So never been outside the country probably

C: That’s great, I mean a lot of our customers have – you know that’s the one great thing about travelling when you get to a certain, you know an age – you’ve retired and your kids have left home and you’ve got more time on your hands, you know to get out and explore some places that you’d never dream of going to is one of the first starts of travelling

H: But if you’ve never been abroad before, I mean if you took a 3 week trip that might be quite tough, so would you recommend maybe a 10 day journey?

C: Not necessarily length it’s more about consideration of destination. Some places can be a real culture shock if you’ve never travelled, so I would actually think it’s not necessarily duration, it’s more about the sorts of things that you actually enjoy. I mean take it easy, go on maybe a long trip but it’s well-paced, and you get a chance to have some days at leisure – take it easy and maybe go to a destination that isn’t necessarily going to be a great shock to you when you first get there

H: Yes. What’s the most amazing place you’ve been to?

C: Well I love Cuba but then I’m slightly biased, I’ve been there a few times, it’s just one of the most – one of places on earth that is very adept, very very different

H: And did you drive round in one of those old Cuban American cars?

C: Yes I went out in Havana and Santiago de Cuba and I’ve done most of the island – you’ve got to see behind the resorts of Cuba, that’s where the real fun of Cuba is

H: Well I wanted to drive around in the old car, but I got a modern car with four doors, only one of which would open so you know -

C: Well that’s Cuba!

H: But I didn’t book with a tour operator, so that’s perhaps where I went wrong. Now we have a question here from Mrs Norman, she says “reading now the information on the website, I think I’d like to take a more adventurous holiday this year. Do you have any suggestions as my husband and I are both in good health, but we’re not as young as we used to be” – she doesn’t say how old she is, but she says “nothing too exerting please”
Nothing too strenuous. What do you think there?

C: Well I think Into the Rain Forests of Borneo is a great one, it’s a real top 10, wins every year, and customers of all ages and all types of experience in travel do that holiday and rate it very well. That type of holiday, you know takes into account all the different types of sightseeing and cultures you can see in Borneo. I would recommend Borneo, I’ve been there as well and it is a wonderful place

H: I mean quite a lot of Borneo the rainforest is being cut down at a fairly fast rate, so it’s a destination to go to soon I would think

C: A lot of that is in the southern part of Borneo, the Indonesian part rather than the Malaysian part, but yes it is a big problem and each year, you know you have to keep an eye on the smog levels because of those forest fires and so on, so it’s always worth again checking your travel advice before you go to some of these places

H: Absolutely, foreign office advice always good idea to have a look at that around the world. Question from Peter, he says “I’m always put off these kinds of packages because they sound expensive.” So can you travel far but actually on a fairly low budget?

C: You can travel many places these days on a low budget. My only word of caution is you know you get what you pay for, and the further a field you go if you are on a budget and things go wrong, you know you’ve only really got yourself to blame in those circumstances so although sometimes they do appear more expensive it’s usually because you know that’s the price that those destinations command, you can’t really do long haul on the cheap I don’t think

H: No

C: Not exploring and not adventure. You should really be looking around, checking what other people are offering and judging the value of the trips rather than just the price

H: I mean I’ve noticed obviously a lot of people now on short haul holidays doing their own thing because it’s fairly straightforward, buying a flight, but on long haul
I have to say I was reminded last year that it was a good idea to go with a tour operator because I went to Brazil, the airline went bust, I was with a tour operator and they had to spend money buying more airline tickets for me and if I hadn’t gone with a tour operator that would have been a cost for me, so it certainly worked out for me. I mean travelling around, you haven’t mentioned Australia – is that on your program as well?

C: Yes again it’s been a firm favourite from probably the very start of our long haul program, and again we do that sort of the Grand Adventure of Australia, trying to cover as many sights as we can. We find less likely that people want to then go back and do certain parts of Australia, the big demand is for the Grand Tour

H: The Grand Tour, yes. That’s certainly a popular destination. Now you specialise obviously in the more mature market – is there a minimum age?

C: For our customers, over 50

H: Over 50

C: Travelling companions over 40, but over 50 is our, what we specialise in

H: So you will take travelling companions over 40 so I’m ok now, wasn’t initially – but what about this one, Jo’s saying “can I bring children on these holidays?” so I mean obviously in your case that couldn’t happen but what do you think, do older people and children mix or is that -

C: From our experience we find a lot of our customers actually take holidays with Saga because they don’t want to be where there’s lots of young people, they want to be with like minded people and you know I think there’s some people that like the rowdiness of young customers, but with ours, our customers definitely like to be amongst people of a similar mindset

H: And what about Europe, I mean I know we’re talking mainly about long haul here but is there demand for European holidays amongst the older traveller, is that still very very popular?

C: Yes I mean the biggest volume that we take on holiday are to short haul destinations, you know Spain is still the top favourite although we tend to take a lot more people now to Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia – we’re seeing some big growth in touring in Europe as well so as people are moving away from just hotel stays, they’re moving onto touring product. But that is the area really where people are more comfortable arranging holidays themselves so really for short haul you need to try and add value, make sure you’re doing something different

H: Ok well I’ve got a tough one for you know I’m afraid – this lady, she doesn’t give her name, she says – for obvious reasons – my husband loves exploration when we go on holiday but I need some beach, so I need a recommendation” – where would you go to let her husband go all over the place and she can just lie back and relax?

C: Ok well I’d again go back to Malaysia. We’ve got a place called the Nexus Resort which is the most wonderful 5 star spa, luxurious hotel, but it’s surrounded by rainforests, and from that base you can do a whole range of – well there’s included excursions in the package, but there’s a whole range of optional trips. If he’s feeling sprightly enough we can even arrange for him to go and climb Mount Kilabaloo

H: And the beach is nearby of course as well?

C: It’s beachfront location, it’s fabulous

H: Ok. Well now Jo from Bedford, she says “I like the sound of these holidays, but I need some reasonably priced destinations” – so if you’re looking for the best value at the moment, what’s the best value at the moment? I bet you’re going to say Cuba aren’t you?

C: Cuba’s always going to be good value, but I wouldn’t recommend Cuba for that, I still say Cuba’s the cultural destination, a lot of people go there for the beach but – value at the moment I think Mauritius is exceptional value at the moment, we’ve got some great hotels in Mauritius Mauritius, I would also say some of the long stay holidays we have in South Africa, we have in Fishook, just near Cape Town and also the Blue Marlin out on the East just outside Durban, so I think there’s some wonderful places without necessarily sticking to one typical destination if you can understand what I’m saying

H: Ok, got another question, Sarah, she says “is it hard to get insurance for the more adventurous holiday?” What’s your advice on that?

C: Well it is unfortunately and this is something that Saga has always tried to campaign about because you know people are discriminated by age insurance and they really should be taken into account how well-travelled they are and how fit they are, but with Saga we have our own insurance included in the holidays, and we do that so that we can insure most people without any extra cost, depending on how old they are or what sort of conditions, medical conditions they have, so we try and insure people that might find it difficult to get insurance

H: Ok well that’s great advice thank you Chris. Well we’ve been hearing about long haul holidays and we’re going to be looking later on at cruising, so if you’ve got some questions about cruising holidays, get onto the internet, send us those now, we’re going to be taking a video break, and when we come back from that we’re going to be talking to Nigel Blanks whose an expert on cruising, so here’s the video

Video clip

H: Well some pretty amazing destinations there on those cruises, certainly made me want to go on a cruise, I’ve never been on one and I’m delighted that we’re joined now by Nigel Blanks whose a cruising expert who can tell us all about cruising – Nigel thank you for joining us on the show

N: Pleasure

H: So I mean cruising has really grown in popularity over the last few years I think about a million people now in Britain every year take a cruise – what do you think it is that’s made is so popular?

N: Yes as you said I think it’s now just over a million people that cruise, I think the biggest draw and attraction has been the value for money, the over the years – particularly over the last 10- years I think pricing has become very attractive, as I say the value for money is very good, depending on the product that you have and buy, ourselves included, we try to include as many things as possible at Saga at our cruise product and pricing, anything from a UK travel package so that you don’t have to worry about getting to the cruise, we like to include a choice of either a chauffeur car, car parking or rail travel down to the port, then you embark the vessel, and then also we include in the price things such as insurance, gratuities, the tips which also –

H: That’s quite important isn’t it?

N: Which also can –

H: People don’t like the whole embarrassing thing of having to tip someone at the end of the trip so if it’s all included that’s excellent

N: Absolutely I think if it’s, particularly a difficult thing, a British thing – anti-British is we don’t like to tip people so we – and particularly the generation that we deal with in terms of the over 50s it’s not something they’ve been bought up almost not to do, so it’s somewhat an alien thing

H: Oh well that’s good, well we’ve got loads of questions so thanks very much for all the questions you’ve sent in about cruising – the first one is from John, he says “I have never been on a cruise but I’m looking to take my wife on a cruise for our Ruby Anniversary. What can we expect on board? Is it possible to go on an over 50s cruise or would it be mixed with all ages?” So what’s the answer to that one really, starting with that last bit about the age

N: Ok well in terms of the age obviously with the Saga cruise product it is basically exclusively for the over 50s, we do allow travelling companions to travel over the age of 40 so again not knowing John’s age but assuming he’ll be of the qualifying age. The beauty is that with the cruise product you can experience the whole thing, so we start off really from breakfast and through to lunch, dinner, all meals are included and then you have sailing between ports and ports where you see the different destinations and excursions

H: It’s always worried me that I’d put on weight, I mean you mentioned breakfast, followed by lunch, followed by dinner and I’m just thinking – do people have plenty of time to workout and exercise as well?

N: Yes I think it’s a balance between the two, I think you need to remember that you’re on holiday, you need to be enjoying yourself, there’s a relaxation time as well and you can actually choose, but I think without a doubt you will put on a few pounds, but the best thing to do is to work them off, and then come back again and try and work them back on!

H: Fair enough. Now looking at the destinations that people can go to, I mean clearly some cruises go out of Britain, some to the Mediterranean I suppose. Caribbean’s pretty popular and also other destinations as well – in your experience what are the most popular destinations right now?

N: I think certainly during the summer season one of the most popular destinations is Northern Europe, so there’s probably one of the best ways to see places like St Petersburg in the Baltics and visit the Baltic capital, the best way to go there is by sea. To actually come into the harbours, to feel the whole experience of coming in through the estuaries. The same with the Norwegian Fjords, what better way to see that part of the world than actually to sail into the areas and through the Fjords, experience the whole concept of sailing

H: Ok

N: I think the Caribbean is popular, but you tend to find now it’s for the very much American dominated, so because I think certainly in the last few years a lot of the American cruise liners are basing their ships in the Caribbean and they sort of attract a slightly different type of customer, certainly sort of homeland – lots of Americans on those particular vessels

H: Ok so tell me about river cruising because that’s something I’ve heard quite a bit about recently, and it seems to be growing in popularity as well

N: Yes I would say rivers is one of the other sort of big growth areas. A lot of the business is certainly through the Northern European rivers so sort of the Rhine, the Danube, are good, firm favourites, and at Saga we charter vessels on those particular rivers including Alba as well. Those are very very popular. Slightly different experience because obviously the size of the vessel is much more smaller, one could say almost a little bit more intimate –

H: So how small is small – a couple of hundred people?

N: You’re talking on average 130-150 sort of people, so much smaller than ocean-going ships

H: And with the ocean-going ships now I mean it seems like some of the new ships are maybe as big as 3000 people on board, perhaps some of them bigger than that now, I mean what’s the biggest ship that you would take in terms of numbers of people?

N: The biggest ship that we own takes 655 passengers

H: That’s quite small by oceaneering terms –

N: Today’s terms that’s a small vessel. When we took the first of our ships on 17 years ago obviously she was sort of a medium size vessel, but I think the bar has been raised and as you said there’s a lot of big ships coming in, 3000 3500 plus passengers, so it’s sort of changed the dynamics completely of the cruising experience

H: Ok, so looking at the activities we’ve got a question here from Camilla, she says “tell us a bit more about the facilities on the cruise boat – what is there to do whilst you’re trying to get rid of all those hours”, I mean apart from the breakfast and lunch and dinner which we’ve mentioned already, I mean, what have you got?

N: We have sort of a daily program that goes on, and literally every day the program is different, there’d be a variety of things going on in terms of anything from sort of playing shuffle ball on deck to quizzes, competitions, all those sorts of things in terms of daytime activities during the sea. Also entertainment sort of in the evening, we will have cabarets, etc etc that sort of take place as well, so there’s a real variety of entertainment during the days that you are at sea

H: I guess also the great thing is the scenery changes every day, so a different place every day –

N: Very much so

H: You stay still but everything else is changing, and I imagine also cruising must be an incredibly safe kind of experience, because you are there with a group of people, you are not you know in a town staying overnight somewhere

N: Yes I think you get the best of both worlds, I think we’re very lucky because the itineraries that we offer as a company are very port intensive so again for those people that find it, there’s a few that maybe are bored of being at sea, we are trying to offer- within reason – maybe a port every day. Certainly on a 15 day itinerary we would have 12 or 13 ports of call which breaks up any potential monotony that somebody would have, but also means that you get the maximum enjoyment from the actual cruise and in terms of seeing as many things as possible

H: Ok well we’ve got a question now from John Newgen, he says “I’d love to go on a cruise, however my wife is not the most sociable of beings, are you forced into group games?”

N: I would say no you’re not. I would say, like anything, the cruise experience is very much a discerning travelling experience, so it’s entirely up to you. If you wish to partake you can be as sociable or as unsociable as you so wish. I think I would say that from experience what tends to happen is a lot of people go with a pre-conception of what it will be like at sea, and just by socialising gradually you generally bring people in, and I think also we’re very lucky that the staff that we have on board the ships are great at just encouraging and breaking the barriers and you know breaking the ice certainly with couples, and again that works really well because we have single seating dining on our vessels, and it’s important that way that we can encourage people, couples of 2, 4’s, 6’s, 8’s to sort of mingle, dine together, and if you’re not happy and don’t wish to sit with other people we can bring you away and put you on tables of 2’s, 4’s – whatever’s appropriate

H: Can you actually get dinner in your own room as well if you wanted to have –

N: Yes you can. We offer with our own product 24-hour room service which is complimentary, no extra charge and basically anything on the menu you can have in your cabin if you so wish

H: Ok

N: You can be as – sorry

H: Ok well Reg says he and his wife are both in their 60s, they’re considering a cruise for the first time, so it’s interesting, a lot of people watching who are actually interested in doing that. As a couple, we’re very active, like to explore the places we holiday. Our biggest concern is being cooped up too long between islands or destinations on a cruise. So somebody who doesn’t want to be cooped up so much, wants to be out more –what do you recommend there?

N: Well again what I would suggest you do is that they pick an itinerary which is, as I said before port intensive, so by nature if you chose a cruise from the UK that was going to the Caribbean for arguments’ sake, which would probably take somewhere between 28-30 nights of a round trip duration, you’d have lots of days at sea and that would probably be Reg’s worst nightmare from what he’s just said. However if you went for something a little bit more port intensive, like a Baltic cruise where you’d have say 13 days of ports in a 15 day itinerary then you know the boredom, the potential boredom or monotony would be broken up, he wouldn’t feel he was cooped up because every day open the curtains, there’d be a new port of call, and I think certainly that would you know be the answer there

H: But on that itinerary you talked about the Caribbean you weren’t presumably meaning that somebody would fly to Miami and then set off from there, you actually mean they’d be setting off from the UK?

N: They’d be setting off from the UK

H: So maybe need to fly to Miami to avoid that –

N: Yes I think if they wish to sort of cut out that sort of trans-Atlantic crossing and the days at sea then they would need to fly across

H: Talking about flying now I mean a lot of people are now talking about environmentally sensitive holidays, I mean it’s been said that quite often that actually cruising is a very environmentally sustainable way of traveling – do you agree with that?

N: Yes I think certainly if you cruise ex-UK you cut out the necessity to fly, without a doubt and obviously as you said it’s very topical at the moment, yes I think yes I would endorse that

H: Now if someone wants to get information about cruising what’s the best way to do that, is there a particular website, I mean apart from your own obviously where you can find out information, maybe something like the Passenger Shipping Association?

N: Yes I think the obvious thing is the Passenger Shipping Association, so to go through to their site and you’ll get sort of an independent view on all members of the PSA and in terms of the cruise ships and the product that they offer

H: And there are quite a few cruising magazines now I think as well which you can subscribe to –

N: Yes there are

H: And websites too

N: And websites, as I say there’s quite a lot of websites that you can log onto. And I think you know most cruise liners have their own sort of websites as well, which offer quite a lot of information about cruising

H: Ok well Geraldine’s asking, she says “I’m a vegetarian, do the boats get access to local produce?”

N: Yes they do, I think we pride ourselves in the amount of local produce that we like to purchase, I think particularly fresh fish, it’s always a must at the end of the day and I think that’s really really important, and also a vegetarian diet, special needs, as long as we know beforehand what people’s special requirements are then we can ensure that they take place, and even just during a cruise, if somebody tells us and tells the maitre d’ the requirement, taste or something they would like, I’m sure 24 hours we can find it

H: Ok good. Well I’ve actually never been on a cruise, Chris I don’t know have you ever been on a cruise? I imagine you must have been over your years in travel

C: Only Saga ones! As a guest of Saga, I mean I’m not quite at the age group yet to enjoy a cruise, but I will do

H: Sorry for putting you in the age category, I’ve got about 4 years to go actually before I become – so we’ve got other questions coming in actually about general travel tips, so maybe I can put those to both of you. I mean first of all we did mention travel advice, the foreign office I guess is the place to go to if you’re traveling abroad, particularly with a long haul destinations to find out particularly about safety. What about finding out health, inoculations and things like that, where would you advise people to look?

C: For health and inoculations I would always advise our customers to seek advice from their GP, because that advice does change. However there are websites you can log onto to find the latest advice, but it’s still recommended to see your own GP. For you know, it’s not just that advice that’s important when traveling, it’s also advice about the country, the cultural customs, and it’s those things that need to be respected as well and we always incorporate in the information that we send out on a holiday, those health information, we always advise to go to the foreign office. If the Foreign office have advised on a specific issue that we think customers should know about then we’ll ring our customers and we’ll tell our customers about those things, but in the main it’s a multitude of different things you should learn about that country and information before you go on holiday

H: Ok well we’ve got a question from Mr Hardcastle “I used to travel all the time with my wife, however sadly she passed away 3 years ago. It’s difficult to travel on your own, so do you have any tips for me?” I mean do either of you want to comment on that?

N: Well we offer as a company a lot of holidays for single people. I think by the nature of the customer base that we have, the over 50s unfortunately you know people end up becoming widowed and we’re able to sort of cater for their needs. We offer a number of holidays where we have no single supplements and others where the supplements are a modest charge, which I think is important, and even on our own cruise ships, we’re quite unique in as much that over 20% of our inventory actually is single accommodation, which is quite a high proportion, especially nowadays –

H: That’s a lot, yes

N: So because many of the cruise ships that are currently being built actually don’t have any single cabins at all, but we specifically have over 20% of the inventory designated for that

H: Do you find that the way that cruise ships that you’re using now, are they changing over time in the sense of, for example I have a friend who – she really likes to have a bath, she’s about 75, she doesn’t like using a shower because you know it’s not something she’s grown up with particularly – are the cruise ships changing the way they design for people?

N: Yes I think very much so, I think what tends to happen now is the ships tend to become very modular, rather like – the scenario I can best give is in terms of buying a modern house, and buying an older, traditional property. You tend – the modern way of building houses now is everything is small, modular, small tiny gardens, where if you want a bigger size bedrooms, a proper size garden, you buy an older house generally. The same with cruises, the cabins on cruise ships have got smaller and smaller as the economies of scale have got greater and greater –

H: Yes

N: And more people – obviously wider choice, there’s cruise ships now that have skating rinks, rock climbing and bits and pieces like that

H: Skating in the Caribbean?

N: If that’s what you want to do, that’s the advantage of the cruise ship

H: Well now Tessa has been looking out of the window, she says “it’s a wet and cold January and I want to book some summer sun and fun – what are your top tips for finding the ideal holiday?” So let’s start with Chris, what would your top tip be, and I know you’re going to say let’s go to Saga, but apart from that one –

C: Well the world’s a big place and also you know there are so many different companies offering so many different experiences, I think if you know, do you want just a beach or do you want an adventure – I think decide that first and then I would say, you know if it’s a wonderful place you want to go on holiday I would recommend Mauritius, I’d recommend South Africa or Malaysia at the moment and if it’s some adventure you want then South America I would say is a top tip at the moment

H: Ok Nigel, final recommendation from you

N: I think the other place I would obviously recommend because of the exchange rate is America, currently with the dollar being so weak, or the pound so strong, you know it’s never been a better time to go to the States, so that would be my top tip

H: Good, great advice, well don’t forget you can get more information about holidays by clicking on the link on the website. I’d like to thank my guests Chris Simmons and Nigel Blanks for joining us on the show today and please join us again next week when we’ll be looking at another aspect of holidays