Ruses of touring agencies: choosing a hotel for vacation

 

...a small, cozy hotel? It is a usual characteristics when you can’t say anything else about this hotel. It can be cozy and neat, but you shouldn’t expect any special comfort and service.

 

...green territory? A very extensive term. “Green territory” may mean three proudly standing palms or a perfect park. Green territory is uncommon for new hotels, it can be found at the old, lived-in hotels where bungalows have time to be covered with ivy and palms have leaves on them. If trees become a small forest - catalogues would mark this as “buried in verdure”. In this case, don’t expect sea view at lower floors.

 

...distance from sea (from elevator - if to speak of skiing resorts)? Care if your touring agent measures this distance in minutes, not metres. 10 minutes by foot? Can I ask you at what speed? Do you know that you can walk the same distance in 10 minutes if you wear trainers, but in skiing boots you will walk more than half an hour? Trust catalogues where the distances are marked in metres. Consider the fact that it is measured from the closest point from the sea. One hotel building can stand in 100 metres from the coast and another - 500 metres.  

 

...first line from the sea? Does it mean the sea waves embracing the wall under you windows? Definitely not. it means that there are no other buildings between a hotel and a beach. But there can be a road! Sometimes it’s a symbolical country-track and sometimes a railway (as can be found in Costa Brava)! Some resorts don’t have a single hotel which is not separated from a beach by a promenade alley. And sometimes there is a public swimming-pool between a hotel and sea (this socialist atavism can be found in Bulgaria).

 

...second (third) line from the sea? Among other things there’s nothing bad. Hotels are a priori cheaper but newer and have a higher class here. By the way many first-line hotels build branch hotels in the second line. In this case you can use all infrastructure of the main hotel.