Travel with Katie Butler: Sun, sand and ‘amazing architecture’

Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: We also welcomed back Emma, who works in our Ossett store, from her Jet2holidays ‘Destination Discovery’ trip to Turkey.

Total Travel were once again lucky enough to be offered a Jet2holidays ‘fam trip’ (familiarisation trip) and it was Emma’s turn to take to the skies and gain hotel and destination knowledge whilst staying in the beautiful resort of Kemer on the Gulf of Antalya.

‘Fam trips’ are are an excellent way for hoteliers and suppliers to showcase their products and allow agents to gain valuable first-hand knowledge of a resort or destination. Here at Total Travel we have been lucky enough to send our staff on three ‘fam trips’ already this year, with Alison venturing to Bulgaria earlier this month.

Emma flew from Birmingham International Airport and travelled by rail to get there. Thankfully, the trains were running and here is what Emma had to say about her ‘Destination Discovery’:

“It was an early start for me, travelling by rail to Birmingham on my own, and I was slightly nervous about getting to Birmingham and using the monorail. I need not have been, in fact it was surprisingly straightforward and I would definitely use it again.

"I was also surprised at how quickly we got through security, there were no queues at all.

"I then met up with the other travel agents who were also going on the trip, along with the representatives from Jet2holidays.

"We were staying at the NG Phaselis Bay Hotel which is beachfront in Kemer and is just beautiful, I could have relaxed there forever. Of course, I was looking forward to the hotel visits and there really are some impressive hotels in Turkey.

"We visited The Limak Limra, Doubletree by Hilton-Kemer, Greenwood Kemer Resort, and the Sherwwod Exclusive Kemer to name just a few, my favourite being the Doubletree by Hilton.

"I loved this hotel due to the breathtaking mountain scenery and also the proximity to not only the beach but the resort centre.

"All the hotels were outstanding and we sampled many of the restaurants too, which were impressive.

"My favourite part of the trip was our visit to Antalya Old Town which is very traditional and not what I expected. There is so much more to see and do than just go to the beach, with amazing architecture dating back to Roman Byzantine eras.

"I also enjoyed the sugarcraft experience.

"The weather was lovely and averaged 25 degrees every day, so May is definitely a good time to travel if you don’t like it too hot.”

Last week was once again all about late deals with the top-selling month to depart being June and late bookings accounting for 37 per cent of our new bookings.

Top destinations did not shift at all last week and UK cruises and Majorca retained top position.

Next week our new shop in Brighouse will have celebrated its first week and I look forward to revealing how our opening weekend went.