A slice and a slope
HAVE your cake then ski off the calories during a week’s stay at the Chalet Linda inAustria’s Kitzbühel resort. The deals includes buffet breakfasts, afternoon tea and cake, and three-course evening meals with complimentary wine for six days. The £535 price, a saving of £350, includes flights from Stansted departing March 24. See inghams.co.uk or call 01483 791 114. IT’S a new travel season – and with it the airlines are launching a raft of new flights. We pick some of the novelties out of the destinations goodie bag. There are lots of new US routes coming on stream. Low-cost Icelandic airline WOW Air is launching flights from Stansted to New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Michigan and St Louis.
Prices are good – £125.99 one way to New York, for example – but beware… There’s a stopover en route at WOW’s home base of Keflavik, Iceland’s second city, which adds massively to the journey time.
A better option is fellow Icelandic low-cost carrier Primera Air, also a newcomer on the UK scene, with slightly more expensive but direct routes from Birmingham and Stansted to the likes of Boston, Toronto, Washington and New York – the latter starting in April. WHY GO THERE: New York is going through a big resurgence right now. In the vicinity of Times Square there’s a new miniature city called Gulliver’s Gate, plus National Geographic’s virtual-reality based Ocean Odyssey.
And then there’s Hudson Yards – a whole new neighbourhood – with its amazing metal Vessel, a sculpture by our own Thomas Heatherwick. From £139 one way, primeraair.co.uk. The recent pioneer of low-cost transatlantic air travel has been Norwegian, based at London Gatwick. It has already pleased punters with its services to Florida, Las Vegas and daily flights to Los Angeles, and this month it adds Chicago and Austin, Texas, both from Gatwick.
But its big step into the unknown is it has just launched a service to South America, flying to the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. WHY GO THERE: South America is a new destination for a budget airline, and the civilised world of Argentina is a great place to start – particularly if you’re a meat-eater, and a lover of tango. The wilds of Patagonia lie to the south, the winelands of Mendoza to the west, and the tourist-friendly Tigre delta just to the north. From £279.90 one-way, norwegian.com. Low-cost airline Ryanair is also breaking new ground, but heading east. It’s started with flights to Paphos in Cyprus – with onward connections to Jordanian capital Amman – and will add Aqaba in October. Although the airline, along with easyJet and Wizzair, already offers services to Israel, this is the first time it has ventured deeper into the Middle East. WHY GO THERE: Ryanair has chosen well, because Jordan is a particularly tourist-friendly destination. Stable, friendly and with worldbeating attractions such as the lost city of Petra and the Dead Sea, plus beach resorts around Aqaba for winter sun.
Think swaying date palms and oases. From £70 one-way, ryanair.com. Turkish tourism has struggled of late, with complicated domestic politics and a couple of terrorist attacks that got the world’s attention.
But the resort areas along the coast have always been trouble-free, so it’s none too surprising that this year Jet2 is announcing new flights to Dalaman – from Belfast – and Bodrum – from East Midlands. WHY GO THERE: There’s no denying the beauty of the Turquoise Coast. Islands and sheltered bays, fishing villages and mountains, great grilled meats and seafood and a wealth of dynastic ruins and tombs. The prices are good, the th sea is calm, the beaches are excellent. And the th gulet – traditional sailing ship – owners will be very glad to see tourists return. From £131 one-way, jet2.com. It looks as if British Airways is turning its at attention to popular tourist destinations this ye year. It has announced direct flights to the d dreamily expensive Seychelles, as well as in introducing a direct service to Nashville in the U US, the home of country music.
Closer to hand, BA has just started flying tw twice weekly to Almeria, on Spain’s southern co coast – ideal for those who love the idea of the C Costa del Sol but not its crowds.
But its most welcome summer launches will b be services to Mallorca and Menorca, from a