Hope it picks up, going in 3 weeks!

rep did say that july/august was picking up a bit,the place was only busy at the weekends(suspect influx off spanish weekenders)..the restaurants(inc the huge steakhouse/tapa's)and the 100's off chinese restaurants..well not 100's but there were many were empty..

I think the poor value of the £ to the Euro is having an impact everywhere in Europe.

Hopefully things will pick up..hoping to squeeze a Lanza in early next year..

I've just got back from Playa Blanca today and at times it did seem quiet, but most restaurants i went to seemed to be steady and doing ok , the food and service levels were excellent as per usual , prices were reasonable and about the same as last year, the euro exchange was the biggest effect on our spending , we tried to keep our evening meals to around the 45euro mark which we managed to do . We took out a few food items to save on supermarket bills , and noticed that the supermarkets were highlighting special offers more than before. We just tried to control our spending a bit more than previously and this was purely due to the euro exchange. We took 700 euros and spent 620, but we came home with 1200 cigs and perfume costing around £70 in england , around £370 total back, for £550 total spend , so a great weeks holiday eating out every night , cava for breakfast/lunch/dinner , nice suntan all for £180 , in my opinion a good value holiday and a very nice place ! just enjoy

I was just looking at Monarch and Aer Lingus flights for xmas and the planes appear virtually empty.

Highly unusual for that period.

Crockett, I would love to know how you found out that the flights are virtually empty?

A-ha, well, with Aer Lingus you can click on "view seat plan" when it brings up your search results and it shows you which seats are already booked/taken.

With Monarch you have to go a bit further along and put some passenger details in, until you get to the select seat page, which again shows availability.

sorry thats not very accurate, you can't use this as an example of how many seats are available/not been booked. It just shows which seats have been prebooked and what is left available to prebook and remember you dont have to prebook seats.

Exactly!! I fly Aer Lingus a lot, and choose not to pay to prebook my seats!!!!!! Not saying crockett that you're incorrect, but as adj27 says, this is not the way to find out that flights are virtually empty

All very true, but I still feel it's a realistic guide to how a flight is (or isn't) filling up. Bear in mind also that I'm looking at xmas, when it will largely be families travelling and I'd imagine they would want to be sure of sitting together.

Monarch are currently doing a survey on what's most important to travellers and No. 1 at the moment is ability to choose your seat (Easyjet take note), which indicates to me that most of their customers would pre book them.

We have never pre-booked seats and see it as an unnecessary expense. We have always been seated together. Not largely families at Xmas, either, Crockett...sorry! In my experience over the last 10 years to Canaries there are more couples travelling than families with children.

Monarch and other airlines do try very hard to flog the pre-booked seating...just a coincidence that THEIR survey shows passengers rate this as top of their list?! I don't think so!

There is a discussion currently running in our Airlines & Airports forum about pre-booking seats and sitting together:
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=136539

David

what hotel were you in jeffni??we heading to lanzarote bay nxt thurs(13th).def think it is to do with the credit crunch & the poor exchange on the euro...luckily we are all inc

the all inclusive epidemic is also to blame for the appearance of emptiness in resorts,if people are all holed up in their hotels and not spreading their money and custom throughout the resort then obviously this will have an effect on the business and atmosphere in resort!!!! how are people not surprised when business are failing yet they have not spent one euro in the local business??? think about it!

well unfortunately due to the high prices travel companies are charging for family holidays is the reason people book all inc..as it only cost a couple of hundred extra for my family of 5 to upgrade to all inc..although we do not stay stuck to the hotel the whole fortnight we do spend euro in the local business'..at the end of the day whats the point going to resorts if your not gonna get out & about see about & also support the business'?

i agree with you annette,and i do blame the holiday companies really,they make it almost impossible for families not to choose AL but unfortunately there are people who never leave the hotel! crazy really cos then whats the point in going abroad! time the big companies started helping out the resorts and offering reasonably priced accomodation and flights and also the resort supermarkets need to stop ripping off the tourists so that self catering is a more viable option.