The huge success of our Spanish & Salsa Group Holiday in Barcelona has meant we have received excellent feedback from almost all participants! Thanks to those who wrote into us and, for all those who may yet be tempted, read on!

If you have any questions at all please contact Laura on groups@cactuslanguage or phone 0845 130 4775.

Alternatively you can send in your booking online by using the Booking Form to the right of this page...and receive a £10 discount off your holiday!

Joe Kavan: May 2004

Laura hola,

Hope you are well and thanks for your email. The rest of the holiday was excellent and I was genuinely sad leaving Barcelona. The city, the group, the language learning and dancing were a great combination. The Hotel was very good (not that I spent much time in it) and I thought the situation could not have been better as it was so central.

I learnt a lot of Spanish and found the teachers good also. I had done some groundwork on learning the language before I came, so I knew a good number of Spanish words, but the beginners class was definitely the right one for me. I got the impression that a number of people in the beginners class also had a little knowledge of Spanish, but there were one or two people who had no previous Spanish experience at all. These one or two people found it tough as some of the teachers speak Spanish a lot while teaching, which is probably their policy, whereas some were a little more bi-lingual. But this is a hard one to call as it is hard to please everybody.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and thank you very much for your assistance and guidance. Hope your salsa is going well for you and that you are enjoying it! I will
definitely go on one of Cactus's Cuban trips next year so please keep me posted. Again many thanks and keep up the good work.

Hasta pronto,
Joe.

Hiley Lewis: May 2004

Hola Laura,

¿Qué tal? We are extremely tired - we had a fantastic week! We did not go to bed on Saturday night and left the club 2 and half hours before we were due to catch the bus for Girona.

Coral and I enjoyed ourselves enormously. I had booked the holiday specifically for the Spanish and the salsa was an added bonus. We did not manage to do any sightseeing as the walk back from the language school took in lots of great shops after shopping, lunch in one of the outdoor cafés and being entertained by the street entertainers. There was just enough time to change and go to the dance classes which were brilliant, especially the tango which was held in one of the clubs so we could practice afterwards. In fact what we did was watch the locals dance. There was a Brazilian Carnaval on Saturday so you really did not want to be in un museo when you could be dancing in the streets. Jorge and Diego were very good teachers and we will see Jorge again when he comes to a salsa congress in July.

I would recommend that future participants look out for the cafes that do an excellent 3 course lunch with 2 glasses of wine or water for €7.00. The group dinners in the evening I felt were a little expensive.

Homework had to be done after coming back from the club or at breakfast. There certainly was no time to be bored! The language school lends dictionaries but they are in Spanish so I would advise students to bring their own. The teachers certainly made the classes interesting. Ana the conversation teacher had a lot of crazy ideas to get participants involved. Using the imperative, each member of the class had to write down a command and then another member of the class had to pick a piece of paper and carry out the command . I ended up standing on a chair with my t shirt turned backwards singing No Woman No Cry. I said she was crazy.

Our host Anja was very nice and did everything to ensure we were having a good time. I think the tapas dinner might have been better on our first night so everyone got to know each other and the club afterwards.

If I write anything more about this holiday it will turn into a book so I end it here. I certainly intend to carry on with my Spanish and am looking for a 2 week intensive class that has an element of conversation. I will forward the pics as soon as they are developed - unfortunately I do not have a digital camera.

Adios,
Hiley.

Mac Macmillan: May 2004

Dear Laura,

I was going to write to you anyway to say thank you for your help in getting my class switched. If you hadn't suggested changing classes I'd have tried to stick it out. I changed on Wednesday morning to a more advanced class, a group of five girls - again all still quite young, but they were lively and
chatty which made a huge difference. Also, as luck would have it, they were doing precisely the bit of grammar I'd wanted to revise, so it turned out perfectly! Thank you.

Feedback:
Overall I had an excellent holiday. It's a standing joke with my friends that I don't like being away from home, and if I go on holiday for more than four days, I'm always wishing I could go home early, which is why I'd booked my flight back for Saturday. This is literally the first holiday where I haven't felt like that, and could happily have stayed til the Sunday, so
well done Cactus! The comments that follow are things which could be improved, but don't take it as meaning I had a negative experience, as I certainly didn't.

Language Classes:
The school facilities were excellent. They do very good cheap lunches in the café. I was happy with all the teachers. The grammar teacher in the first class brought extra exercises in for me, because of a query I'd raised with her, even after she knew I was changing classes. However if you're advising people on which schools will suit them, it's worth noting that the advanced students all seemed to be school/uni gap year i.e very young, although there were older students scattered through the lower levels. As a result I think it would have been quite lonely if I hadn't gone as part of the dance hoidays crowd. I don't know if this is typical of all language schools or whether it depends on the area of Spain you visit.

Accommodation:
My hotel room (first floor internal) was pretty dark - not a problem on this holiday, as I didn't have much time to spend there, but on another holiday it might have been. The location was good - I preferred being in the Barri Gotic to being closer to the school. I think it's worth paying the single supplement not to share on this holiday, because there are a lot of late
nights, and everyone was trying to catch odd bits of sleep at different times.

Timetable:
There was never quite enough time to get any sleep! If one could juggle it to have a later start in the morning, that would be perfect. I didn't go to the tango, although I would have liked to, because I was trying to get an hour's sleep in the evening before going out. The flamenco was a good way to fill Monday evening.

Language/Dance Combination:
I think this is a brilliant idea. I'd never have done just a salsa holiday, and don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much on its own, but I had a great time (plus I got to practice my Spanish with the dance teachers). I'd certainly consider doing it again (or Spanish and flamenco perhaps?) Anja was a really lovely host.

Can I ask a favour? I wasn't there on the last night, when it was intended to compile a list of email addresses, so I don't know if it happened. If you have the list and could let me have it, I'd be grateful. If you don't feel able to pass on the addresses you have (and I'm a data protection lawyer, so I'd understand) could you pass my mail address to Jane, Anna
(Brighton Anna) and Lisa. Lisa gave me her business card, but I can't find it!

Many thanks,
Mac.

Anna Pearson: May 2004

Hi Laura,

Got back to England yesterday and I wish I was still out there in Spain!!! It was a great week and I really enjoyed the courses and meeting people. I feel that in such a short time, the Spanish lessons could have been less grammar orientated and had more practical activities to help with the conversations (maybe going over the sort of Spanish that we could have
used within the week to get by)? The tutors we had (Maria and Sylvia) were good fun.

The salsa lessons were very enjoyable and all the clubs were great (I thought the last club on the Saturday night wasn't as good as the rest), and it was a fun packed week. Oh yes and the Taxi Dancer was very fair and good. The hotel was very nice, with a good breakfast included.

I'll email you any photos I have once I've uploaded them.

Speak to you soon,
Anna.

Coral Henry: May 2004

It was nice meeting you too Laura. The only problem I had was that I felt a bit lost on the first day of the language class, being that they were completely in Spanish, and since I did not know any Spanish I thought it a bit odd - how was I to understand? I did feel more comfortable towards the end of the week though. I at least feel that I have come back with more than I went out with. Continuing to learn - next time I see you I will be fluent! See you in ten years!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Jorge's salsa classes - he made it fun. It was also nice meeting new people, and Anja is lovely.

Coral.

Jayne Conroy

Hi Laura,

It was nice to meet you in Barcelona. I was very pleased with my holiday. I thought Anja and yourself were very helpful in all areas of the holiday. The hotel that was chosen was probably typical of Barcelona but myself and others were a little disappointed with the rooms we were given. As for the language school, I really enjoyed it and by the end of the week my Spanish had improved thanks to the patience of two great tutors Maria and Sylvia. You will be pleased to hear that I noticed a 100% attendance from everyone on our holiday every day!

The salsa classes were great. When I chose this holiday I had no idea what salsa looked like, but after a week in class and evenings out at local clubs I feel confident that I am able to take part at any event in the future. The evenings out with Anja were great including the choice of restaurants and clubs. All in all I had a fantastic time and will be booking again in the near future.

Thanks again Laura & see you soon,
Jayne.

PS. Would you be kind enough to pass on my e-mail address to everyone on this holiday - thanks.

Suse Hankins

Hi Laura,

Was great to meet you and sorry I didn't respond earlier. I caught a flu-type bug while in Spain and had a couple of days off sick; and some of my colleagues have been ill too so it has been a nightmare at work the last two weeks. Hmm, think I need a holiday....

Ok, what I thought:

Language classes: good, I felt they assessed my level well and put me in the right group. All the teachers I had were fine, but one lady, Noemi (can't remember her surname, sorry) was exceptional: she was excellent, witty, and really made it fun. Please convey my praise of Noemi to her employers. She
deserves a rise! No complaints about the school; tuition good, facilities good (well, ok, the PCs were slow but it is not important) and cafe good. One of my fellow students gave me his summer 'flu, but that is not the school's fault.....

Accommodation was fine. Buffet breakfast very good, and a nice long breakfast slot too. Reception staff very helpful. Room was adequate, though if I go to that hotel again I want room 606 which is lovely. I had a twin room to myself; had I shared it there would definitely not have been enough storage space for 2 people's clothes for a week. Bathroom was nice.

Salsa classes very good; friendly and helpful tuition. Diego was kind and very patient, as were those assisting. Classes were mostly at the right speed for me. Rate of learning quite fast - I have since been to a local salsa class and so have something to compare them with; the classes in Barcelona were deceptively intensive and I was surprised and pleased by how much I learned, me not finding it easy to learn physical stuff. And I haven't forgotten it, either! (Still can't do enchufla though).

I did have a problem with the holiday; I found it very tiring. For me, the salsa was the main attraction, but I liked the idea of combining it with Spanish. Ideally I would prefer to have just one or two hours of Spanish in the morning, and the rest of the holiday the same: having to get to classes for 09:30 when you are out clubbing late every night is tough! However I appreciate that for some people the Spanish was the main thing, so you can't please everyone.

The group: astonishingly, we got on very well, I found everyone friendly. Haven't contacted them yet, but I will, shortly. I am almost certain that all 13 of us managed 100% attendance record all week at all classes, which shows that we were all enjoying it!

Optional extras etc: I booked most of the bookable group dinners and 2 nights taxi dancer. The dinners were fair to good, except for the last night blow-out seafood dinner, which was very good indeed. I don't usually like big new restaurants but I will go there next time I visit Barcelona! The crazy crab, cangrejo loco from memory, down in the new harbour. The taxi dancer was Juan who assisted at our class, which was good because I was used to him; I was glad to have booked because it made sure I got off my bottom and danced!

There were no disasters and I don't remember anything that didn't go smoothly, which is down to Anja, who did a fine job and is a nice person too. Sometimes we did wait around for a while, largely due to some group members' timekeeping being Even Worse than mine... but we were all relaxed, in holiday mood. Barcelona was wonderful, of course (but you can't take credit for that, sorry, heh heh).

I don't have any photos, but would be interested in seeing any that the others took. And I fully intend to go on another dancing holiday - ideally with a little Spanish (or whatever) thrown in. But probably not 4 hours a day!

Looking forward to the newsletter - and thanks again for a great holiday,

Suse.

Lisa Nicholson

Laura,

Thanks for giving me Mac's email - I wondered if she had lost it, as we were both quite keen to learn Flamenco together, so it's great to get in touch with her at last.

I hope your holiday was fun in France, last week. I have not yet completed the feedback but shall get that over to you soon, it's always busy when you get back to the office after a weeks holiday so I shall put some time aside this week.

Good luck with catching up with your backlog, after your break.

Regards,

Lisa.

For further info or to book, please contact Laura on groups@cactuslanguage or Tel: 0845 130 4775