The Riu Recipe For Bowls Holiday Fun

02/10/2015 | Bowls

A couple enjoy a glass of wine on a bowls holiday

Published in Bowls International, October 2011

Jonathan Plumridge, of Personal Touch Holidays, describes a sure-fire formula for bowls holiday success.

Multi-award winning international hotel chain Riu Hotels have been working in conjunction with Personal Touch Holidays for over a decade to facilitate memorable bowls holidays at their hotels.

In the early years of the relationship Personal Touch Holidays bowls clients generally stayed at Riu hotels on a half board basis, enjoying dinner and entertainment in the hotels in the evening having bowled at local clubs during the day. Nowadays however, with the increasing popularity of all-inclusive arrangements amongst bowlers, and with Riu having constructed high quality greens at a number of their hotels, it is far more common for Personal Touch Holidays guests to spend the majority of their holiday on site, benefitting from excellent cuisine and included local drinks throughout the day whilst additionally participating in a series of highly enjoyable gently competitive bowls matches on the hotels’ own greens.

What makes the Riu experience so special? Above all, I would say that it would have to be the consistently outstanding friendliness and attentiveness of their staff. Those that would disagree would generally only do so because for them personally the wonderfully varied international and colourfully themed buffets make an even greater contribution to their holiday enjoyment.

The consequence of the strength and consistency of the Riu brand amongst Personal Touch Holidays’ regular guests has been to underline the popular hotel chain’s own sales slogan of ‘Destination Riu’ with the question ‘Is it a Riu?’ every time we introduce a new hotel to our range.

For many people, once homes and cars are paid for, holidays are their major annual expenditure, and one of the major reasons for Riu Hotels’ undoubted success is that a holiday based at one offers an almost cast-iron guarantee of holiday quality and holiday fun.

Personal Touch Holidays extends this guarantee into the world of bowls travel via the provision of a highly personalised caring service. Pre travel, Personal Touch Holidays guests benefit from the telephone support of our highly knowledgeable, professional and attentive travel advisors. During their holidays they benefit from the roundthe- clock support of our resort teams, comprising a blend of highly personable customer service specialists and equally affable bowls organisers.

The bowling is efficiently and enjoyably organised in a gently competitive format that offers an ideal opportunity to get together with a wide variety of like-minded people, other opportunities being provided by the two social get-togethers that feature as part of every holiday, and the range of optional excursions and activities that are offered.

Because of their highly sociable nature, these Friendly Fiestas as we term them, are especially suitable for individual bowlers or small groups of friends whose clubs don’t generally organise bowls trips overseas. There are a number of single rooms at no supplement available for each departure date and the value of the all-inclusivity of these holiday packages is immense, given that in half board environments current exchange rates often generate additional holiday expenditures on lunches, teas, coffees and drinks of well in excess of £100 per person per week.

For 2012 Personal Touch Holidays are offering Friendly Fiesta arrangements with Riu Hotels in the Costa del Sol, Mallorca, and Tunisia, with all-inclusive packages including flights, transfers and 4 bowls matches leading in at only £549 per person. For further information, please call us on 01403 786200, or e-mail us at office@ thepersonaltouch.org.uk.