During European winter, play golf in paradise Southwest Florida

January, February ….. warm and sunny weather, 25 degrees Celsius, straw hat, Bermuda shorts and polo shirt. Beautiful golfcourses, so nice, that you really hesitate to touch them. This is no antagonism – this is quite normal and fantastic daily routine here, in Southwest Florida, here in „little“ paradise ….. Villa „Bel Air“.

Only 10 hours of flying away, Southwest Florida is the perfect destination for all, who want to continue playing golf, during the cold, freezing and ugly European Winter.

Every European golfer knows the feeling: The winter in the “old world” overruns its time and the brandnew set of clubs (a nice christmas present) is getting dusty, the golf course of the own club covered with white and steady snow and no end in sight!

All in all, life is much cheaper in the USA, than in „the old world“. The present Dollar exchange rate is still very attractive for European travellers and the prices, espeacially for golf equipment, clothes or restaurants, are pretty low. Most people think of mass tourism, Disney World and Miami, when considering Florida for vacation. But you will not find this in the Southwest. Here are the most beautiful golf courses, friendly and nice people, palmtrees waving in a gentle breeze and wonderful vacation villas, located directly at the water, with private pools, waiting for the exhausted golf player to spend great relaxation after an exciting and fascinating match of golf.

All this is available for very reasonable rates – not the high rates of the Mediterranean area during winter time. A real paradise for golfer! Of course easy to combine with nice sightseeing trips and maybe some nice boattrips to explore the Floridian flora and fauna – watch the dolphins playing in their natural environment – even the family members, who are not interested in golf, will enjoy and relish the paradise of Southwest Florida ….. and when you are really lucky, in wonderful Villa „Bel Air“!

LINKS to golf courses in the area: Coral Oaks, Royal Tee, Palmetto Pine – Country Club, Eagle Rich, Heritage Palm – Golf and Country Club, The Forest – Country Club

When the greens in Europe are frozen and there is no chance to play golf. Come to sunny Florida, to our little paradise, best weather conditons for Golfers, no rain, great temps in the 20′s and a gentle breeze. Perfect! It´s tee time.

Therefore we offer for the Golf-Enthusiasts of Villa `BelAir`: “Golf-Lovers-Dream” from 07.01. to 15.01.2011
8 days of Dream Vacation,
for Euro 990,- plus Florida Tax 11%

Presently, it is possible to book additional weeks in combination with this Special. We would be pleased to calculate an individual offer for you. Do not hesitate to ask us.

We are always hunting for nice and interesting news for the guests of lovely Villa “Bel Air” (or friends of our website). Therefore, we have been very amused, when “Air Berlin” started their offer for really “low priced” tickets to Ft. Myers, Florida. “Air Berlin” is the only airline, presently flying “nonstop” to Southwest International Airport” at the Southwest Coast of sunny Florida. From here, you have only a 30 minutes drive to “little” paradise – to Villa “Bel Air”.

Especially during the cold and dark season of the Euopean winter, it is great fun to enjoy the warm, floridian sun, the nice and friendly people there. The quite noise of palmtrees in the warm afternoon breeze, laying at the private pool, going out with “Lady B.”, to meet some nice and friendly dolphins or just relax and enjoy your own big smile, when talking to the friends in freezing Europe on the telephone.

We would love to calculate an individual offer (Villa “Bel Air” and “Lady B.”) especially for you. For those, who are still thinking and planning: There are some amazing slots available for a perfect vacation in “little” paradise – Welcome to Villa “Bel Air”.

Here direct to the special offers of “Air Berlin”: Air Berlin – Ticket offers

Dear guests and friends of lovely Villa “Bel Air” (or the “Bel Air” blog; here NEWS).

From September the 8th 2010 the USA are charging an entry fee for tourists, entering the USA without visa, according to the “visa weaver program”. This fee will be 14 US-Dollars (4 Dollars for ESTA and 10 Dollars of “tourist fee”, to promote the USA for tourists in future) and will be charged, when applying for permission on the ESTA website of the US Government. We recommend, for all our guests and friends, who are planning a trip to the US within the next two years, to apply now on the ESTA website (or overwrite the present valid application, if you have already one, by simply applying for a new one). The service should be free of charge until September the 7th (hopefully).

Here the LINK to the official application form: ESTA application form

Air Berlin changed some departure times in their winter schedule (from the 1st of November until the 30th of April). The flights from Düsseldorf are departing then at 10.15 local time Düsseldorf and landing at 15.45 local time Ft Myers. Most of our guests appreciate thiese changes, because they depart ealier from DUS and land at daytime, well before sunset in Florida. This means, that everybody can enjoy the surroundings on the way to Villa “Bel Air” and without any stress, the first shopping can be done, to fill the fridge for the first time.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, some flights from DUS are leaving even another hour earlier!

Because we did not receive an information for all of our booked tickets until today, we strongly recommend to check the departure times on the internet or directly with Air Berlin.

Here the direkt LINK to Air Berlin: Air Berlin DUS/RSW

FORT MYERS, FL- Oiled pelicans from Louisiana are being flown to Southwest Florida, for release today. A special Coast Guard flight has left New Orleans on Monday 12th to land at Page Field in Fort Myers. The pelicans will then be taken to Gulfside City Park on Sanibel Island for release. All the birds were successfully rehabilitated after being rescued from the oil spill in the gulf. It seems, that the authorities and enviroment organisations are pretty sure, that the coastline of Southwest Florida will not be affected. The oil spill is located in the far north of the Gulf of Mexico and is slowly moving west/northwestbound. We want to welcome our plumed friends, although we convict everybody, who has to take responsblility of the desaster in the Gulf.
Here some information about pelicans: Pelicans

Travellers of certain countries, entering the USA for a limited period of time and for certain reasons, do not need to apply for a visa. However they have to fill out a so called ESTA form online, on the internet. ESTA stands for `Electronic Sytem for Travel Authorization`. This application is absolutely free of charge!
But if you `google` ESTA, looking for the online application, you will find lots of private sites, offering ESTA, but they will charge a service fee for there assistance. We strongly recommend to use the official site from the goverment of the USA for the ESTA application! It is really easy, well explained and assistance is really not necessary.
Here is a LINK, presenting information, whether you can use the visa free immigration procedere: Information about ESTA
Here the LINK to the official application form: ESTA application form
Here a good summary of ESTA by Wikipedia: Wikipedia about ESTA

Latterly airline personnel is checking the ESTA application extremely accurate during the check-in procedere. Guests of our Villa BelAir had problems at Düsseldorf airport when trying to check-in, because it is not easy to differenciate ´zero´ and ´O´ in the new european passports and our guests made mistakes. Fortunately the problem could be solved, because Düsseldorf airport offers computer terminals with internet access, and they could correct their ESTA application directly on site. But we strongly recommend, to check your application carefully at home, considering the ´zero´and ´O´ problem. If neccessary you can correct the mistake without any stress and pressure of time. We also suggest to print the ESTA application confirmation and also the flight confirmation of your flights to an from Florida, because you will be asked for these at the check-in counter.

In the kitchen a new stainless steel stove is waiting for our gueste, with a lot of additional features and on top of that, a stainless steel full automatic microwave.

Of course, we want to mention also Lady B., in this article – the brandnew Bel Air boat. Good 2 feet longer and half of a ton heavier, she is just a boaters dream in paradise. The new engine with 150 hp gives her addititional reserves and a pretty good cruising speed with very adequate fuel consumption. A combination of GPS, depthfinder and fishfinder according to the latest standards, predestine Lady B. perfect for daycruises in Waterfront Wonderland and the offshore islands with their fantastic beaches.

To feed the pleasant anticipation of our friends and guests and to help waverers to finally decide to book a dream vacation in Villa Bel Air, we also renewed our virtual tours on the website. Everybody can see (and enjoy) now the wonderful and nice changes and start to look forward to the own fantastic vacation in Villa Bel Air – if you like with Lady B., too.