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BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: More than 50 per cent of British holidaymakers can't find the Algarve on a map

MY LAST trip abroad was to the Dominican Republic. We knew it was in the Caribbean, because that's why we chose it.

In fact, I think I can safely say that I have known the whereabouts of all my holiday destinations - apart from my very first foreign holiday to Ibiza. But I was only eight at the time.

Shockingly, however, a new survey has revealed that, while Europe is a top destination for British holidaymakers, many of them have no idea exactly where they're going.

Four out of five people questioned could not find Spain's Costa Brava on a map, while more than half could not locate the Portuguese Algarve, the study by accommodation website LateRooms.com found.

Perhaps most worrying was that some 45 per cent could not find Switzerland on a map, 15 per cent did not know where Spain was and 11 per cent failed on France.

The website's development director Tony Walsh said: "With Europe being such a popular holiday destination for us Brits, it's quite astonishing that so many people were unable to identify popular holiday resorts such as the Costa Brava and Costa Del Sol."

However, it seems people in Dorset are hotter on their geography than the survey would suggest.

Lara Fretton, manager of First Choice travel agent in Poole, said most of her clients were fairly well informed.

"Sometimes you will say, Do you want to go to Halkidiki?', which is in Greece, and they'll say, Where's that?' "So it's just more unusual places I think, maybe some of the Greek islands. But I think most people do know. I've never come across anyone who didn't know where the Algarve was."

So it seems most locals are quite knowledgeable about the locations of various holiday spots.

Diane Watton is senior consultant at Bath Travel's Christchurch branch. She agreed the majority of clients were well-informed about where their chosen destination was.

"Most of Bath Travel's clients are repeat clients who do the same thing over and over again. But I do occasionally get people that come in and say, Where can we go?' We can say, Costa Brava?', and they say, Where's that?' It's the Spanish Costas really that are the confusing ones."

However, Diane has noticed a difference in the younger customers.

"I do think that they don't teach them in schools now, because I get a lot of youngsters and I'm amazed that they don't know where these places are."

So what are youngsters learning in their geography lessons?

While map work and using an atlas have been highlighted as key elements of the topic, it seems the youth of today may actually be more clued up about what European destinations are like than their elders.

"There's more to geography than memorising maps," explained Sue Stowe, head of geography at Bournemouth School for Girls.

"As a humanities school, we are just as concerned with how physical and human environments are related and how human actions impact on the environment, so helping young people to understand the rapidly changing world in which they live."

Alex Cullimore, head of humanities at Bishop of Winchester School in Bournemouth, added that the way in which geography was taught had changed over the years.

"It used to be very country-focused, but now it's more done on themes, so you might have a theme of weather and climate or flooding. You do look at countries while you're doing that, but not many European countries come up.

"It is a little bit concerning that people don't know where places are. It definitely impacts on the exam results as well, because it's kind of assumed knowledge.

"Most schools, because of the national curriculum, tend to focus on countries outside of Europe.

"It's a little bit of a shame, I suppose."

7:00pm Monday 12th May 2008

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