Flying travel tips

Active Away Tennis Holidays Blog: Top 10 Flying Travel Tips

by Travel Tips

Active Away Blog March – Flying Travel Tips!

I’m currently onboard an Easyjet flight to Sofia – heading out to Bansko for our Skiing weeks. After many years of flying, both long and short haul, I’ve found there’s certain things I do to help make my journey a little easier, and wanted to share those with you.

Flying has definitely become far less glamorous than in say the 70’s or 80’s with the general consensus of Airlines being ‘low cost, ontime, no frills.’ This allows much more of the population to venture abroad than before, something that I believe is fantastic!

I’ve outlined 10 of my ‘top flying travel tips’  below…

1) Purchase a ‘1 Size Fits All’ carry on bag!

Many airlines (including BA) offer ‘hand baggage only fares.’ This means that when booking, the price excludes a check in bag/suitcase (normally around 20kg) and you will be charged extra for this. Fortunately when travelling with Active Away, this is included in the price of your holiday! However if you are flying short haul quite a lot, you can take advantages of some cheap fares by packing everything you need in your carry on bag and saves you paying for a bag which is normally around £50.

N.B. Buy a carry on that can be accepted in by all Airlines – sizes do differ from Airline to Airline, I would personally recommend the: Stratic Suitcase Agravic, which is currently able to fit in every hand baggage allowence.

2) Check in Online

An obvious one that will save you time at the airport is to check in online. All you require is your ‘booking reference number’ and surname, enter these on the airlines website and simply follow the steps. Some airlines, for example Easyjet require you to check in online before you travel.

3) Mobile Boarding Passes

I love my iPhone, and am a big Apple geek, and keep discovering it’s capabilities! With the latest iPhone software, inbuilt is an app called ‘Passbook’ which allows you to save your boarding pass to your phone. I hate being unorganized and having loads of paper in my pockets. Most airlines now offer a service whereby you can download your boarding pass to your phone, and simply use that at the airport to scan and board with. I find it really handy, as I have actually ended up loaing my boarding card before, and you can also keep a record of your trips!

4) Give yourself time!

I find airports intriguing and also strangely productive. I don’t like to be rushed, so tend to give myself time to grab a coffee and do some work on the laptop. You may find there are long queues at security or at the check in desk, so allow for this!

5) Use public transport to get to the airport!

Most airports in Britain now have a pretty good transport link to the nearest city. With parking prices consistently increasing, I find travelling to the airport on the train a very relaxing and cheap experience. I ‘persuade’ a family member/friend to provide a 10 minute drive to Sheffield train station, where I can catch my train directly to Manchester Airport, all for £17.50 return, with a reserved seat and no stress of driving!

6) Join the Rewards Club/Airmiles

I tend to travel on British Airways and Emirates fairly regularly and am a member of both of their rewards schemes (free to join). Everytime you travel just remember to claim your miles, and before you know it you’ll have a free upgrade! British Airways is known as one of the most generous rewards schemes with their ‘Avios’ system.

7) Ask the question + Be polite!

Being 6 foot 2, sometimes it’s nice to have a little extra legroom on the flight! I always speak to the person at the check in counter and see if they have extra legroom available (for free). I would guesstimate the success rate to be around 50% and has provided me with a little more comfort! Ask the cabin crew again when you are on the plane, as if the extra leg room seats aren’t sold they will often tell you that you are able to take the seat after takeoff.

The amount of times I’ve seen customers be rude to try and get around a situation (delays/cancellation/seat change etc) astonishes me. The chances are you aren’t going to change things anyway, so being rude is going to get you nowhere!

8) Bring Entertainment!

Yes, if you are travelling on your own, flights can be monotonous and boring, so do bring some kind of multimedia device. Ipads/Mp3 players/Laptops can save you from boredom! Alternatively if you are travelling with friends discuss your upcoming trip!

9) Food/Drink

Accept that you will pay more! I like to eat well before I get to the Airport, as I know that the chances are if I find I require a snack I end up out of pocket!

My personal highlights were paying £3.50 for a bottle of water in Amsterdam Airport, and a slice of Pizza at Dalaman Airport for £8.00!

10) Airport Security

This is a point of frustration for me – I’m the person that always gets their bag searched and gets frisked!

Be prepared – you know you have to take your laptop out of your bag, your belt off, and your coat/jacket off  – so do it before you get to the desk! If everyone was to do this, Airport security would move a lot faster (even if they do frisk me!)

 

I hope you enjoyed my tips!

If you have any questions please feel free to email me: josh@wordpress-695341-2303067.cloudwaysapps.com

 

Look forward to seeing you on a flight soon!

Josh Thompson

Health Benefits

Tennis Holidays: The Health Benefits of Tennis Holiday

by Tennis Holidays

People often utilise their holidays by engaging in fun activities, entertainment and exploring new places but some people prefer to have healthy holidays, which are not just fun but can offer numerous health benefits, relax your mind and provide a way to enjoy fun activities.

Tennis holidays for instance, are considered best when you are thinking of going for a healthy holiday! You cannot only sharpen your tennis skills but also meet new friends, share great experiences and have lots of fun. These tennis breaks are perfect even if you are not a great player. Tennis breaks also offer a number of tennis lessons – which can provide you the perfect opportunity to not only learn the sport but also sharpen your existing skills. You can even enjoy planning tennis with your kids or friends and enjoy relaxing after an exhausting and fun day playing. There is nothing better than giving out that extra time and relax your mind on your holiday whilst taking a great tennis break!

Either way, tennis helps to maintain your health, fitness, strength and agility. Research suggests that a good one hour tennis session can help you burn around 600 calories for men and 420 calories for women. Overall, playing tennis keeps you fit as it requires continuous movement which is not only good for your body but also the mind.  You may not be able to take out as much time to play tennis with your busy work routine but a tennis holidays can provide the perfect opportunity to you to play the sport as much as you like. The good thing about tennis is that it is a very flexible sport that can be played at any age and at any skill level.

Health Benefits of Tennis Holidays

There are a lot of health benefits of playing tennis that can make your tennis holidays the healthiest one.

For instance, playing tennis regularly increases the aerobic as well as anaerobic fitness. One may gain more power and speed plus it also strengthens the body, making it balanced and enhances the coordination as well. People who play tennis regularly are usually very flexible and stay fit. Playing tennis also makes your bones strong and makes you fit throughout. Tennis is the best sport for cardiovascular fitness as well.

However, you do not just get the fitness benefits by playing tennis but it also has a huge positive impact on your personality, social life and mental health as well.

It is interesting to note that tennis players often score high in optimism and self-esteem while scoring low in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and tension than other athletes and non-athletes. The reason to it is that playing tennis may generate new connections between nerves in the brain, developing positive personality characteristics.

In addition to the physical, mental and social fitness benefits of playing tennis, there are a lot of psychological benefits as well. For instance, it develops a work ethic in one’s life and makes them relatively disciplined. Also it enables you to accept responsibilities, manage stress effectively, learn how to recover, plan and implement strategies and learn sportsmanship. Most importantly it creates a great ability in one’s life to manage team work and develop social skills. The blend of all these health benefits makes tennis a great way to stay fit and have great fun on your holiday.

All in all, tennis is the healthiest activity to choose as your holiday plan. Although, there are other sports that are also excellent in providing health benefits but no other sport than tennis has been so widely acclaimed from all disciplines to offer a range of physical, mental, emotional and socially benefits.

So, you can make the most of your holiday and not only have fun and relax but play your favourite sport. Active Away are specialised tour operators to organise group tennis holidays to exclusive 4 & 5 star resorts, where you can meet new people, make new friends, share your great experiences whilst having lots of fun. Whether you are a couple looking for the fun tennis break or single who would like to meet new people with similar interest or would like some tennis coaching and would like to share your experience with like-minded people, then you can contact Active Away to book for you your perfect tennis break.  Active away tennis holiday is best suited for everyone. With them you may enjoy numerous UK tennis breaks.