 With the kids back at school and still a long way to go until Christmas or even the midterm break, maybe it's time to think about having a wee break for yourself. Getting away for a few days, could be a city break, could be off to the sun. Well, Emma McHugh from Atlantic Travel and Atlantic Travel actually, in Erick County, celebrating 30 years in business this year, but more about that later. But Emma is joining us in studio and we're also streaming if you want to join us on Facebook or YouTube. And Emma, thanks for coming in. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon to you, John. So where could we think of now that would be good value? Because it's all about value this season, I'm sure, and it normally is. But where if we were thinking of, let's say a city break, where would be good value? I think now more than ever, value has always been important, but I think everybody's feeling the pinch now. So there certainly is great value there, if you're looking to get away between now and Christmas. In some places. Well, some places are obviously better than others. Absolutely. I'm thinking about when you get there as much as getting there. Yeah. So if we look at, say, what cost to eat out or what it costs for a bottle of beer when you're there, and when you pair that up then with your flights and your accommodation, that's where you're going to get the value is where the cost of living is a little bit lower in destination. And sometimes these aren't traditionally in our mind as city destinations. Some of them are, but some of them aren't. So I think sometimes we need to look a little bit outside the box, outside the Rome, outside the Paris, outside the Amsterdam, because there's so much choice. So for example, if we look at, say, Athens, where a meal for two could cost maybe about 35, 40 euro for a couple of courses and your bottle of wine, locally made wine, 12, 13 euro. Great destination, right up until the middle of November, you're going to get mild weather. You're looking at per person, you could look at maybe flights for about 100 euro accommodation, 100 euro per night for a couple. So depending on whether you're on three or four nights, you can really tailor then the cost of your trip. Now bearing in mind, Athens is a little bit further away than most city destinations, you need to bear that in mind. So it's about four hours from Dublin. It is an absolutely fabulous city. I was there in August myself. And the place we would advise everyone to stay is the Plaka area. And it lies in the shadow of the cropless. It's stunning. It has, even though it's in the city center, it has a Greek village feel about it. So you have beautiful cobble streets, tree lined avenues, really, really atmospheric. You get a great sense of history in the city itself. Well, it's hard to avoid history in Athens, but I remember when I was there years ago, it was in the height of summer granted, but the heat was stifling and the pollution was awful. So have they, have they, well, whatever about the heat you're going out this time of the year? It shouldn't be as warm. Yeah, I was there in August and the heat was definitely stifling. But if you're looking at shoulder season kind of, you know, from October to the middle of November and again early spring, you're going to have beautiful weather, not too hot, cooler at night, but perfect for sighting. If you're going to be on foot all day, you don't want, you know, mid 30s, high 30s kind of weather. Certain parts of the city are definitely cleaner than others. That's why the Plaka area is where we would tell people that look for accommodation there. And then you're, everything is quite accessible on foot from that area. So you have Hadrian's art, you have, you know, it's home to democracy. That's what they say, Athens. So you have, you have philosophers that would have been there. It's got rich, rich culture and rich, rich history and very good value. Okay. All right. That's, that's Athens. Where, where else anywhere else? Well, if you don't really want to spend four hours on a flight, Lisbon is also another very, very popular destination. And again, you're looking at similar cost of living. So a meal for two, under 40 euro for a meal for two. And there's a huge food culture in Lisbon as well. There is. I was watching and I have a Maguire's program during the week and he's doing a tour of Portugal and he was in Lisbon and the food looked great and the value was good. But in general, portugals, you know, it's pretty good value. Normally is even down the Algarve. Yes. Yeah. I find, I do think though you get better value up, up north. And, and like it definitely is a foodie destination at the moment. And there's some fabulous places in Lisbon. There's a place called the Time Out Market. And it's like a warehouse venue and there's 40 over 40 restaurants on it. And they have to keep up a certain standard. So they drop, they're out. Fantastic. Sushi to steak, it suits everybody. If there's a group of you traveling and you're walking down streets, nobody can decide where to go. This is the place to go because there's something for everybody. And again, extremely good value. And the variety is fantastic. Funny, you should say something for everyone because on the program, he had a sort of a cross range of food, there was street food, and there was a pastry shop, and then there was a high end restaurant. So, you know, Lisbon takes a lot of boxes. It does. And it is, it's famous for its pastries as well. Yeah. So hard to resist. Yes, they are super. And maybe one more idea for a city break. Yeah. So we have then Krakow, which is brilliant any time of the year. So we have Eastern Europe in general offers good value. It does. Now, this is the first time that some Western European countries, this first year that Western European countries will have some similar price point for as Eastern Europe. All right. That is always traditionally been Eastern European. So that has slightly shifted. Well, it's showing really that Eastern Europe is catching up rather than all the way around. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So Krakow, again, I would avoid July, August, very hot, but great value shoulder season any time from, from say March up until May. And again, this time of year, and then it switches completely when we get to the end of November and you have Christmas markets. So again, the prices don't go up. It's the same price point for flights and accommodation, even though it's, it's probably a much busier time of the year for them. And when it comes to Christmas markets, Krakow does it as, as good as anywhere else. Yeah. So perfectly acceptable weather. And then obviously the closer you get to Christmas, the colder it's going to be. But there's somebody asking, are there any good spots in October that are still warm? Well, Lisbon will still be nice in October. Athens will still be nice in October. Absolutely. Yes. But if, maybe this is somebody who's, you know, thinking about combining it with a bit of land by the pool. Yeah. Well, for example, I'm actually just back from Palma myself, and people would associate Palma as the capital of New York and people would associate New York with summer sun and package holidays. But Palma itself is the most amazing city. And you can stay in the city or there's plenty of options, maybe 10 kilometers out, where you have a holiday feel, you have beach, you have a proper pool, nice hotel. You just hop in a taxi then the evening time to veil of the city sites. In the city, if you want. Okay. So I was looking for an active holiday, something related to hiking, any recommendations will be good for hiking. Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Montenegro, Camino's still extremely popular, extremely popular. And it's getting more popular with bigger groups now. So you might have multi-generational groups going or you could have clubs going, but Camino's still very popular. And it'll be good at this time of the year because the temperatures would be nice. Yes, especially if you're, if you're planning on being active during the day, you want to avoid anything that's too hot. Is midweek better to book? Normally is. It absolutely is. Yeah, that would be definitely a top tip. You can save, you could save over 100, 150 per person by going on a Tuesday, coming back on a Friday as opposed to over a weekend. Doesn't always suit everybody, but yes, if, if, if money is something that you want to save, then if you can be flexible with your day to travel, you'll save money on that. The destinations that we were chatting about, I mean, this is overall good value, not too expensive to get there because they're not too far away. I know you mentioned Athens is that little bit further, but in general, not too far away, but it's also the cost of, you know, public travel when you get there, eating out, the cost of drink, accommodation, overall decent value. Absolutely. Yes. All right. So, you mentioned Christmas markets, Cracow, where else is popular for Christmas markets because some people will be thinking around about now. Yes, there certainly are. One that maybe might not be as obvious to everybody is Berlin. You know, that you have the Vienna's, Munich's, but Berlin has staggering 50 Christmas markets in the city itself. So, you think Christmas markets, I don't know, it's sort of, we have this notion and it's a romantic notion of, I don't know, you know, somewhere nice like you have, as you say, Vienna or Salzburg or something, but Berlin. Berlin. Yes, believe it or not. And it is a super destination for both families and couples. You have a mix of markets. So, you have a winter world, which has tobogganing and ice skating, or you have then Alexanderplatz, which is a much more traditional wooden huts, beer houses, but they're all lit up the same at night. You have that atmosphere, your hot mulled wine, just walking through the stalls. So, it can be as romantic as you want it to be. Okay, they just do it and do it well. Yes, absolutely. Thirty years in business, Atlantic Travel first opened in 92 and now an award-winning travel agency. So, a lot has changed since 92, booking now. And I see as well that some of the team that started with Atlantic back in 92 is still there. They are three from day one. Moe McCrossen was there the first day it opened and Mary T. Toy shortly after and then Caroline Kerr. So, they have been in it for the long haul. So, they have seen changes from everything was calculated manually with mileage for airline tickets and now it's a click of a button. So, it's a world away from what it was. It's all too easy to forget and we do, you know, take it for granted. There's all the click of a button. It's always online. But back then it was all done on the phone. Everything was on the phone. Yeah. And you could hold, you could come in and you could say, hold me that holiday option and we could hold it for 48 hours and we just ring our supplier because it was a very small world in travel. So, you knew the person personally at the other end of the phone and they'd hold the holiday for you. And if you get on particularly well, they may hold it a couple of more days. So, you know, there was a lot of it was about relationships as well, which was hugely important. You knew your travel agent and you had a relationship with them. But that's not to say that, you know, that's changed. My things might be also handier and different, but there's still a lot of trust involved and you just know that you're going to a travel agent that they're going to recommend places that they're well familiar with that they've, you know, had groups out there or they've been to themselves and stuff. So, yes. And in the same way, they may have been somewhere that they wouldn't recommend. Yeah. So, it's not always places that they've been that the experience has been good. They know, okay. This is they know to avoid. They read well, but in reality, it's not necessarily like that. So, yeah, it's about, I suppose, we know our clients and as we book more for them, we get to know what they like and, you know, what suits them. So, it is still an awful lot of trust and relationship and between this nine of us there on the team and between us all, we have visited an awful lot of places. So, there's a lot of experience. There's a lot of knowledge there. One place. Yeah. And back then, you had to calculate the price of flights. It wasn't just a book price. Well, it was a book price, but it had to be different factors. Like an encyclopedia. So, and if it was around the world ticket, it was multiple stops. And then you had to calculate, like the book listed every flight that was operating at the time. So, you might have to do a double in London, a London Singapore, Singapore, depending on where the person wants to be. And you had to calculate those miles. So, you go through the book, get those flights, add them all up and tell them what the total would be. And at the time, visas and inoculations and all of that kind of stuff was not ready available on the internet like it is now. So, you know, that knowledge had to be there if you were stopping off summer, what visa was required and what duration of layover was needed. It was a laborious task. But at the same time, it was just the start of travel and leisure travel. And, you know, thankfully it's grown into a much easier process. Sometimes people got a bit of information on Airtail or C-Fax and then went in and asked more questions of the travel agents and kind of delved into it a wee bit to see what was really available, you know, what was behind the page. Cruises, it seems to me that everybody I chat to this year, they've been on a cruise or they're planning a cruise. It's been big business again this year. It's hugely popular. Yeah. And it still is. And I think some people, including ourselves, didn't expect it to bounce back so quickly after Covid. But the projected growth for the companies that are operating cruise ships is phenomenal. And it's not going to stop anytime soon. And for some people, it just offers a really, really good value point where you might want to see four cities in one trip and not pack and unpack. So it caters for everybody from small luxury ships that hold 600 to the megalith ships that hold 600. So there's so many different companies and types of ships that really, if you haven't cruised before, you really do need a little bit of guidance on it. Everybody seems to come back with good stories from their cruise holiday. So that's sort of an endorsement that makes a difference. And obviously, having access to one line makes life a lot handier for travel agents like yourself. But as you've mentioned earlier, you just can't beat the knowledge. The knowledge that's in the room and the recommendations that you might make or places that you might suggest that would be best avoided. We're only 12 months on from restrictions and needing vaccination certs and so on. So there's a real appetite to get it. It feels like it's much longer to think that it was illegal 16 months ago to travel. It just seems like an earlier lifetime ago it picked up pace once we could. And now this year, the acceleration has just gone beyond what we would expect. Even today, the World Health Organization are chatting about the end of the pandemic that it is in sight. So it's great for your industry. And you are surprised how quickly it's going back, not just cruise holidays, but just travel in general. Travel in general and inbound travel as well, like tourism into Ireland is hugely important. And they're both congruent with each other. Like the flights that bring passengers in are the flights that bring us out as well. So one feeds off the other and we're permitted now to travel and to go back out and explore. That allows the doors open for people to come here as well. So it's a positive thing all around. Someone's asking just on that, do you need to be vaccinated to fly from Belfast to Spain? If you are over 12, yes, there's different rules for Dublin and for Belfast. Do they still check for vaccine certs? They do. Yes, as recently as last Saturday when I was going through. But anyone over 12, if they are, well, excuse me, if they're not vaccinated, they need to produce a negative test. So you can still travel, but you still have a certain form of restriction that you have to show a test. Under 12s, nothing. And then out of Dublin, nothing or knock. Finally, I'm going to put you on the spot here. Any good Halloween destinations for young adults? No kids. What would you suggest? Oh, well, if there's no kids, what I would suggest is avoiding the midterm because all you'll see is kids. Families don't go everywhere. There must be certain locations. I'm thinking Ibiza. Yeah, the season for Ibiza, no, would be finished. Yeah. Yeah. So you're looking the last, I think it's the first week in October, Ibiza, everything like all the nightclubs wind down. Yeah. If in terms of value, if you say for example that the midterm goes from say the Saturday to Saturday, if you go on a Thursday, you can get your holiday for half of what you would Saturday to Saturday. So I would advise looking outside of that little period. Wherever they go, try to avoid the midterm. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Emma. Appreciate it. Thank you.