Home to some of the world’s most fascinating architecture, vibrant nightlife and incredible food, Barcelona is a feast for all the senses. The stunning architectural wonders of Antoni Gaudi, including the still unfinished but spectacular cathedral that resides in the wonderful gothic quarter, are a great draw for tourists from the world over.  Art lovers should check out the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Picasso museum.The events and festivals never seem to end in the Catalan capital and highlights include the carnival in February and the various festivals from august to October.
Barcelona’s airport is 12km away and once you’re in the city, the excellent metro is a great way to get around. Taxis have a green light on the front to alert you when they’re free.  It’s easy to navigate Barcelona on foot and that’s a great way to take the place in. Bear in mind the weather is very hot in the summer months. The wettest months are May, September and October.

Many people have a phobia about spiders, but in the UK we are lucky as the common house spiders and ones you may see running about are not usual harmful to us. Spiders can bite and if you get bitten by a spider in the UK it is rare, but you could have a reaction to the bite. Usually this is very easily treated and you will not require urgent medical attention.
If you chose to holiday in Australis you should be aware of the many types of spiders that can cause serious illness if you are bitten and sometimes even prove fatal. One of the common spiders to Australia is the Black Widow spider. These spiders are considered dangerous because of the  neurotoxin latrotoxin, which causes the condition latrodectism that they pass on when you are bitten by one. They tend to lurk in such places as the toilet bowl or letterboxes meaning that you must be very vigilant and make sure that you check places first before sitting or putting your hand in.

It was always a perk of going away and stopping in a hotel to see what complimentary items the hotel provided, however more and more hotels are now cutting costs and in an attempt to save money are not providing any complimentary items such as shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and sewing kits.

This is quite frustrating when you’re going away and have limited packing room as it’s not easy to take all your bathroom products with you without the risk of them leaking in your case.

Although many of the budget hotels across the board are removing all complimentary products from their hotels some places are actually using the freebies as a selling point for staying in more luxurious accommodation. More expensive rooms will often include a range of freebies from an up market brand such as Malton Brown or The Sanctuary. As well as the general bathroom products they will often provide slippers, shower caps and nail sets, these things take the stress out of packing and also make a nice memento to take away from your stay. These items cost the hotel very little and from a business point of view make a lot of sense, after all everyone loves a freebie!

With so many hotel comparison websites it can be hard to know where to go for the best deals on hotel rooms.

The main issue is that the comparison websites only review and offer a certain selection of hotels that usually pay the website to feature their hotels, therefore you don’t get a fair comparison across the board.

My advice would be to find a hotel that you like first of all and once you have checked the reviews and are happy that you’d like to stay there do a search for the hotel on Google and see which companies offer a price for the room you’d like. Search a few websites and once you find the best deal call the hotel directly and say that you are interested in booking the room and have found it online for x amount and you were wondering if they could do anything to offer you a better price for booking directly.

Often hotels have quite a large margin on their rooms that they can reduce to get business directly so it’s always worth asking as even if they cannot beat the price you may be able to get them to throw in some extras like a bottle of wine in the room or a discount on dinner, either way if you don’t ask you won’t get!