A few years ago, very chic villages started to appear in the surroundings of the europeans greatest cities. In fact, they are malls, but they are very different from the classic ones, because you will only find luxury brands such as Aquascutum, Burberry or Dior and some other more “affordable” brands like Tommy Hilfiguer, Dockers or Levi’s. But these are outlet stores where you will only find the past collections with an up to 60% discount all the year. It’s more or less like if they were in sale all the time but having also further discounts on sale-time so you get discounts on the discounted price, making luxury affordable!

The only con of these villages is that they are not exactly very near from the city centers. In London the village is called Bicester Village and as it is of course near Bicester at 65 miles from the heart of London.

In Paris it is called “La Vallée Village” and it is in Marne-la-Vallée just by Disneyland at 23 miles from Paris and it is the same for the other villages through Europe (Milan, Madrid, Barcelona etc.). So if you want to profit discounted prices in your favorite luxury brands you should prepare your shopping trip to the village, most of them have buses than can drive you from the city center to the doors of the village.

You will find the list and all the details of Outlet Villages here.

Even though summer holidays are almost over, it is still time to enjoy one of the best beaches of the world. Condé Nast Traveller magazine has selected for us the 10 most stylish seaside destinations in the world. We can of course find the famous Bora Bora beach in Tahiti or the exotic Kho Kood beach in Thailand, but if you don’t want to travel that far from Europe, you have two possibilities in Spain and one in Croatia.

Do you prefer partying or surfing? If you choose to move your booty, then your destination is without any doubt Ibiza, where you will be able to enjoy the nightlife in the most famous clubs of the world. And during the day you can have a rest in one of the outstanding beaches of the island.

If you are more of the sporty kind you can take some wind-surfing or kite-surfing lessons in Tarifa (near Gibraltar), there some beaches are only for surfers and it is prohibited to swim so as everyone is safe and can enjoy the beach.

You will find the top 10 beaches in the world by Condé Nast Traveller here.

What do you say? Ibiza or Tarifa? Book our hotel at Hotelopia.

After the San Sebastian’s great week is time for Bilbao’s, it started on sunday the 20th and it will end on the 28th. The Aste Nagusia of Bilbao, its name in Basque, is managed in a very peculiar way. It is not up to the Bilbao’s city mayor to organize the fiesta in its own as it happens in most of the cities and villages of Spain. It is uo to the Comparsas to organize the Bilbao’s Great Week, of course with the collaboration of the city council. The 29 Comparsas of Bilbao are groups of people that cheer up the fiesta with their Txosnas (sort of food and beverage stands), music and very different activities.

Since 2009, the Bilbao’s Great Week just entered the very restrained group of the 10 Intangible Cultural Heritage of Spain after being the most voted one. It is worth it, even if it is only to see Marijaia, a peculiar character that represents a chubby woman with her arms up in the air as she were dancing all the time who has became the symbol of the Bilbao’s Great Week.

But you can of course enjoy the traditional corridas, the fireworks, concerts and lots of difference activities.

Hurry up and book your hotel at Hotelopia, the fiesta ends on Sunday!

Most of us go on holidays on July or August, forced by school holidays or because their company closes during these months.

But going on holidays during the high season has its cons, beaches are full, plane tickets are more expensive and some hotels are completely booked. That’s why those who can choose, they decide to go on holidays on June or September. But if we had no obligations, would we take our holidays on this dates? We are making a survey on our Facebook Page. Answer it and give us your opinions.

What a better way to celebrate summer nights?
Whether you are on holidays abroad or working at the office you will be able to find an outdoor cinema near from you. Most of them are placed in parks and gardens, some even in beaches or castles it is a good way to see the classic movies you never had time to watch. Of course it is not exactly the same than going to a movie theater (the quality of the sound and image are not the same) but it is a cheaper way to keep yourself occupied in the lazy summer nights.

In London you can go to the Rooftop Cinema at Queen of Hoxton, from Tuesday to Sunday until the 1st September, doors open at 8pm.
Find all the details here.

For those who are abroad, you can also profit from open air cinema in Paris, where you can enjoy classic movies such as West Side Story or Manhattan by Woody Allen. Until the 21st August, find all the details here.

In Madrid, you also have the possibility to enjoy a movie in open air near the Plaza de España in a park until the 3rd September (find all the details here) or in the terrace of the Casa Encendida (find all the details here).

Did you visited London or Paris more than once? Do you already know Oxford Street, The British Museum, Harrods and The Big Ben and you do not know what else you can discover? Jonglez Guides have edited a very peculiar guides that help you discover the more undreamed of places in town but not less interesting. Thanks to this guides you can avoid the touristic routes, particularly crowded now in august, and you can discover some very curious spots, restaurants or meetings that are hidden all over this big cities. Discover the statue of rocker granny in Madrid, take a tour in a bâteau mouche throughout the more unknown channels of Paris or go to the Holy Trinity Church in East London to a clowns Service. This are some of the possibilities you can find in this guides.

You can buy this guides at your Book Shop or online at Amazon.co.uk : http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Enjoy re-discovering the city.

Traditional restaurants are off the hook in cities like Barcelona or London where a new way to enjoy dinners exists. This restaurants are more peculiar and underground, it is not about creating a new cuisine but a new way dinner experience.

In Barcelona a very one of a kind dry cleaner name Dont Tell was founded in 2009. In fact, the dry cleaning business is more a facade, it hides a restaurant inside that you will not find unless you have a reservation and the code to get in. You can find more information about how get your “clothes cleaned” on the restaurant’s website : http://www.tintoreriadontell.com/

London is full of underground restaurants. Like Dont Tell in Barcelona there are secret restaurants, supper clubs and even restaurants that change their location every week. You can find a list of this underground restaurants in the Time Out website : http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/8001/London-s-underground-restaurants.html

Will you try?

Who does not know the Space Invaders video game?

Created in 1978 by Taito it rapidly became one of the top video games of the 80′s! A few years later this game inspired a french urban artist who prefer to remain anonymous under the nickname Invader. On the late 90′s Invader started to paste very colored mosaics representing the characters of the game, on the street walls of cities such as París, Los Ángeles or Hon Kong. He creates this “invasions” on this great cities and it has become a new way of visiting and discovering new places of a city and hunt with your camera this little invaders. Today he is not the only one to paste this characters, other anonymous people are also using this way of expression and pasting new mosaics on the streets of the cities. París has today more than 350 all over its streets will you find all of them?

Here you will find the oficial Space Invaders of París, Los Ángeles, Bilbao, Hong Kong, Tokyo and some more : http://www.space-invaders.com/gmap.html

This web lets people upload their photos of Space Invaders they found all over Paris : http://space.invaders.paris.free.fr/ Be aware, take your camera with you next time you visit Paris, take a picture of this little invasors and maybe you’ll have discovered a new one!

The tiny town of Buñol (Valencia, Spain) is a quite place all year round. It is, but not on the 31^st of August. On this day they celebrate La Tomatina. It all starts with someone scaling a two storey high, greased pole to seize a joint of ham. Then, the “World’s largest food fight” begins. As soon as the pole is conquered, water cannons are fired to signify the start of events.

More than 100 tones of tomatoes are stocked in the central plaza del pueblo (town’s square) and then it’s the biggest and messiest party-fight ever seen. Tomatoes fly everywhere and participants desperately scramble for fistfuls of squashed tomatoes to fling at each other.

Fruity, tasty and messy fun, we are glad we will not be the ones cleaning afterwards. Thinking of a few people you could throw a tomato too? Make your reservation with Hotelopia!

Malaga smells of Feria. The Feria is one of the most important festivals of the year in this city. It will be held between the 13^th and the 20^th of August and it will have “casetas”, music and live concerts.

This feria is different to others because daytime and nighttime have different ambiences and the parties are held in different places. During the day, the feria takes place in the city centre, but when the night comes it is the “recinto ferial”, where the party goes on until late.

Tickets to fly to Malaga are always cheap and you can get the best hotel offers in Hotelopia, so get your party mode on, take sunglasses and a pair of shorts because Malaga is the perfect mixture of the summer: beach and party!