Plus: where to spot polar bears; and my insurance provider wouldn’t pay out after my son’s ski accident
Given the harsh jail sentence (25 years reduced to ten) handed out to British football coach Billy Hood for possessing CBD vape oil, your concern is understandable. E-cigarettes were legalised in the UAE in 2019 and the same laws for vaping apply to smoking, so only vape outdoors and in designated smoking areas. You should carry the vaper in your hand luggage on the flight and be quite certain that your vaping juice doesn’t contain CBD.
Another option is to make your first stop Figueres, Salvador Dalí’s home town, where you could spend a day exploring the Dalí Theatre-Museum, then take the 90-minute ride to Blanes, a relatively quiet resort on the Costa Brava with a magnificent clifftop botanical garden, Marimurtra, and a superb beach, Cala Sant Francesc. Hotel PI-Mar has rooms starting at £49 next month (hotelpimar.com). There’s more trip inspiration in rail buff Tom Chesshyre’s Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides, now out in paperback (£9.99, Summersdale) and Lonely Planet’s new Guide to Train Travel in Europe (£19.99).
This was truly shocking behaviour from Europ Assistance but perhaps not entirely surprising: the insurer has a pitiful score on Trustpilot and many reviews highlight appalling customer service. It did not respond to my requests for comment on your case and so I turned to British Airways, which was quick to take action: you were refunded in full (less the £30 excess) within a few days. But BA should surely be reconsidering retaining the company as its official travel insurance provider if this is how it treats its customers.
Read more: Can I vape on holiday in the UAE?