* YOU'VE heard about folk going on honeymoon to all sorts of exotic
locations -- sometimes they even tie the knot on a sun-lashed tropical
isle. Sometimes it is just a second honeymoon and the travel operators
have all sorts of wheezes to persuade you to take up the offer of free
bubbly, four-poster beds and a private whirlpool bath.
Well one Scottish operator has an altogether different kind of wheeze.
Based in Dunfermline, the Cuthbert family has been selling Canvas
Holidays -- and this literally is a ma, pa and the weans operation with
some eight grandchildren working for a company that has been going for
27 years -- with ever increasing success.
This year's wheeze is a special offer on second honeymoons, the catch
being that you have to have been married for a minimum of 25 years. What
with the way our society is going with the divorce rate this is going to
be an increasingly easy offer to make.
What you get is a discount of 1% for every year of your marriage if
you holiday between May 1 and July 9, 1992. Tents these days do seem
somewhat different from those in which I spent youthful days camping. In
fact the word camping is rarely used. With Canvas Holidays you get a
frame tent with double bedroom (single beds if you are of that
persuasion), a separate kitchen with a cooker, domestic refrigerator,
and electric light.
The tenting sites are mostly in France but there are also locations in
Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Spain. And being based in
Scotland, Canvas Holidays is quite aware that you may well be starting
with a long drive south to a Channel port. As a result there are prices
for French Motorail and specially negotiated prices at hotels en route
starting at #12.50 per person per night.
* Brochure from Canvas Holidays, 12 Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline,
Fife KY12 7PD. Tel: 0383 621000.
* APART from pillow talk, one of the easiest ways to learn a language
is to drown yourself in the culture of a country. But modern tourism
makes this difficult since everywhere you go the tourist oriented locals
fall over themselves to speak English. Accents Langues et Loisirs is a
French holiday operator specialising in language holidays in friendly
environments. There are courses for beginners, intermediate and advanced
linguists based in Artemare, between Lyon and Geneva, and Forcalquier in
haute Provence.
The company, run personally by Paul Bourgeois, has been running for
seven years. While travel arrangements are made by a bonded ABTA member
(Holcombe Travel Ltd) it might well be worth insuring against loss of
this kind of holiday booked with a foreign company. Prices including air
and coach transport from London, a welcome meal, B&B, and tuition begin
at #449. Artemare can be reached from Manchester via Geneva at a
supplement of #50.
* Brochure and further details on 061 798 0388
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