Extraordinary as it seems, 2011 has just whizzed by and it is Christmas all over again!

Seasons greetings from all of us at Headwater to everyone who travelled with us in 2011! With balmy Christmas temperatures forecasting a warm, wet and windy time for most of us, it is difficult not to wonder when the next dose of vitamin D is coming our way – roll on summer!

In the meantime we have plenty of trips to tempt you in the chilly, inhospitable and gloomy months ahead, so you can relax by the fireside beneath twinkling Christmas lights, eat mince pies and thumb through the latest Headwater brochure of Christmas sunshine. If you haven’t received a copy please order yours here! New Headwater Brochure Please

Here’s to a happy, healthy and fun filled holiday packed 2012 !

Cheers!

After an exciting year of holiday taking and creating new holidays, the new Headwater brochure is almost ready to roll off the presses and will be distributed to far flung parts of the UK in the coming few weeks.

New additions to the Headwater portfolio include a spectacular new walking holiday in Cuba that takes in beaches, jungles, waterfalls and amazing UNESCO landscapes and cities, all to an irrisistible Cuban salsa beat! Next is a superb week walking around Lake Como, staying a selection of quirky family hotels and waterfront properties, offering some wild walking, glorious villas and stupendous Alpine views. Also in Italy, you can walk along the Via Francigena all the way from Orvieto to the outskirts of Rome. You pass along Roman roads and farm tracks, through villages next to supervolcanoes that are famous for miracles and witchcraft.

Cycling in Holland also features for the first time with caramel smooth cycling paths between gorgeous historic towns rich with seafaring history and colour, where canals, windmills and fields of flowers await you.  France’s fabulous coastline offers superb walking in the region of Les Calanques – emerald fjords of shimmering sea between Marsailles and Cassis, while our new cycling holiday on Croatia’ s Istrian peninsula (pictured) is a gem, with swimming opportunities every day, and lots of relaxing waterfront dining on offer.

Look out for the brochure coming your way soon. With the clocks just going back and dark nights closing in, it is never too soon to be thinking about where to go in 2012!

Croatia is an increasingly popular destination and in recognition of this we are in the final stages of planning a superb cycling holiday along the Istrian peninsula that will be completely unique in the UK.

More and more exceptional boutique hotels are opening and the crystal clear seas mean there will be swimming opportunities every day!

Look out for the new brochure coming out in December for all the details, but in the meantime here are 10 fast facts on Croatia to entice and fascinate:

Croatia has 4000km of coastline – and that’s just on the 1,185  islands!

The entire population amounts to only about a quarter of New York City

The average age is 38 for men and 41 for women

The currency is the Kuna, (split into 100 lipas if you’re asking)

87% of the population is Catholic

The national flower is the Iris

Istria has over 2,400 hours of sunshine per year

A common form of Hi and Goodbye in Croatia is “Bog” (it means God)

The land surface area is 56,543 square km

The local name for Croatia is Republika Hrvatska

Istria – known as the Tuscany of Croatia – is packed with wonderful Roman ruins and Italianate architecture. Not surprising as it is so close to Italy – you can even take a day trip to Venice!

We received some correspondence recently from Mr and Mrs McKenzie from Sussex, who have chalked up an impressive total of 20 Headwater holidays over the last 15 years or so!

Can anyone beat this? If you can, we would love to know about it, especially if you can remember them all!

Here is a list of the holidays Mr and Mrs McKenzie selected:

1. Burgundy – cycling,
2. Assisi – cycling,
3. Loire – cycling,
4. Auturns – cross country skiing,
5. Maderia – walking,
6. Mallorca – walking,
7. Provence – cycling 2001,
8. Andalucia – walking 2001,
9. Valencia – walking 2002,
10. Albi – cycling 2002,
11. Andalucia – walking 2003,
12. Lot – cycling 2003,
13. Andalucia – walking 2004,
14. Maderia – walking 2005,
15. Jura – cycling 2005,
16. Provence – cycling 2006,
17. Andalucia – walking 2006,
18. Mallorca – walking 2006,
19. Portugal – walking 2009,
20. Catalan – walking 2011.

Many of these holidays are still current,  so feel free to follow in their footsteps! Warm congratulations and many thanks for contacting us.

Headwater recently undertook a customer and staff survey to find out exactly what our customers think about our customer service, and also what our staff think about the customer service we offer.

To do this we subscribed to Investors In Customers – a company who distributed a targeted survey to 2000 Headwater clients who had travelled on holidays recently, as well as all Headwater staff. It covered all aspects of the booking process and asked for feedback on the entire customer experience.

Well, the results are in and it is official!

Headwater scored the highest possible rating of three stars, and even better, Headwater achieved the highest rating EVER for a business operating in the Tourism and Leisure sector!

Neil Craig, Managing Director of Investor in Customers, added:  “Headwater’s results show they have a very loyal customer base.  Some individuals have been on more than a dozen holidays with them and will continue to recommend them over and over again based upon their exceptional experience of the holidays. To jump straight into the top ten of all companies we have assessed is a tremendous achievement, and one of which Headwater should be justly proud “.

We think that’s worth shouting about!

Can we say a big thank you to all our customers, especially those who completed the survey, and we look forward to being of service to you in the very near future!

This Friday sees the release of a new independent film called ‘The Way’, in which Martin Sheen plays a father who walks the Camino de Santiago after his son dies on the route in a freak accident hiking through the Pyrenees.

The film will highlight some of the lovely scenery along the route as well as telling the story, and some places along the way between Leon and Santiago de Compostela may be recognised by those who have walked the route with Headwater.

For those who haven’t yet experienced the camraderie and entertaining variety of hotels we feature along the route, the film may well whet your appetite to book the trip.  You can do so by clicking this Camino de Santiago link.

Buen Camino!

Thank you to recent customer David Odell for sending in a couple of his pictures from La Gomera, where he was guided by one of Headwater’s most experienced and popular guides – Neil Flynn (on the right below).

“Congratulate Neil on a brilliant holiday, including perfect picnics and weather”.  We know that blue sky tends to follow Neil wherever he goes, but even if the blue sky doesn’t turn up, at least you know the perfect picnic will!

Neil guides both our walking holidays in Tenrife and La Gomera, where the walks and the accommodation are of the very highest order. It isn’t just Neil that gets top marks on this holiday – it was a close race with our hotel the Parador de la Gomera, which according to Mr Odell’s report was “Perfect in every way”.

Feel free to click these links drop us a line for our Tenerife and La Gomera Autumn departures on 01606 720033.

The wealth of information amid the thousands of travel websites on the internet can be a bit bewildering sometimes, so it is handy when some of the leg work is done for you so you can just take your pick of the very best and most helpful ones. To this end, Rhiannon Batten of the Independent currently lists 50 websites you may find useful.

Among some of the more interesting ones are  www.insideragency.com,  which hooks you up with a friendly local person wherever you happen to be, so you can benefit from a bit of insider knowledge and view things from a more local perspective.

If you actively seek out designer hotels, www.tablethotels.com selects individual properties from around the world that should delight you with their innovative take on accommodation and service.

www.seatguru.com will be handy for your flight – it can show you aircraft seat layouts and advise on legroom and storage, so you can check in early and bag a seat that you’ll actually like!