I have just returned from a week at the Holiday Village in Benalmadena. I booked my package through an agent – however opted not to take their transfer and used one of our private transfers. In these days of incremental income agents are getting savvier and by offering services such as these greatly enhance the holiday experience (plus I had an extra hour in the hotel on the way back!).

The hotel was at capacity and it is a long time since I have had an actual package holiday – so what was the verdict?

Having a two year old daughter changes your whole holiday experience – but on the whole although there were many things I didn’t participate in – it was refreshing to see such a hard working team of reps and entertainment staff – some of the kids reps were on duty until 11 PM and the average cover in the hotel was 13 hours per day! I also have to say that nothing was to much trouble for the hotel staff and  all in all a great hotel, excellent facilities and the pool areas were just as fantastic as they look on TV.

I said a few weeks ago about the future of travel and if you look at Directors, owners and senior managers in a lot of travel organisations – a lot have came from the humble beginnings of being an overseas rep.

Sometimes holiday reps get a bad name with TV coverage over the past few years. But even if you don’t use their services it is still a valuable training ground for the future entrepreneurs in travel and other industries and now more than ever there is a huge responsibility on them.

For my money we shouldn’t forget where a lot of us had our first break in travel and should encourage more youngsters to enjoy the same experience.

Now back to the grindstone of weaning Amelia of the 8.00 PM kiddies disco!

See you next week.