Chepstow Walking Festival 2025, Wales
Head to Wales in April to discover the amazing countryside during the Chepstow Walking Festival. The Chepstow Walking Festival, established in 2014, is a highly anticipated six-day annual event that…
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Head to Wales in April to discover the amazing countryside during the Chepstow Walking Festival. The Chepstow Walking Festival, established in 2014, is a highly anticipated six-day annual event that…
This month the line-up is bustling with attractions, including a massive inflatable, eerie street theatre, a Halloween scavenger hunt, a seasonal farmers market, Yayoi Kusama’s immense polka dot pumpkin at…
Wilde Liverpool Street is the latest opening from the chain which seamlessly bridges the divide between apartments and hotels. I am fortunate enough to have stayed with the group in…
Roger Hermiston and Eileen Wise visit Buckingham Palace on their London stay at the Cadogan Hotel If its walls could talk London’s Belmond Cadogan Hotel would have some mighty colourful…
In his programme to the current production of Look Back in Anger at the Almeida Theatre lecturer and author Matthew Franks refers to the danger of producing Look Back in…
From the Day of the Dead to Christmas markets and Thanksgiving, November is a month that celebrates the emergence of winter. Here is our selection of the best festivals in…
The inaugural Great Cornish Seafood Weekend is set to take place on October 26 and 27 at the Great Cornish Food Store in Truro. This event will celebrate seafood, Cornwall’s…
In 2025, Bath is celebrating a big milestone — 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen in 1775. So, if you’re a fan of the iconic author, this is…
Taking place from Friday 4 to Sunday 13 October 2024, the Birmingham Comedy Festival returns with a stellar line-up of over 150 performances. This award-winning festival promises to deliver an…
Petra Shepherd reviews the classic musical Guys and Dolls which runs at the Bridge Theatre until 4 January 2025. Set in 1950s Broadway, Guys and Dolls is an old classic…
To celebrate its 200th birthday, the National Gallery has just opened a spectacular new show, Van Gogh, Poets & Lovers. Surprisingly perhaps, it’s the National’s first exhibition devoted to Dutch…
The Egremont Crab Fair and Sports, established in 1267, is one of the world’s oldest fairs. Don’t worry if you are not a fan of crustaceans – the crabs in question are apples. It uniquely…
Roger Hermiston and Eileen Wise review Monkey Island hotel and Estate on the banks of the Thames near the village of Bray. It is just a small, seven-acre island in…
It has been a motto of mine to expect little and to be pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury Suffolk proved an excellent case in point. Driving…
The Wild Meadows, brought to life by the Secret Garden Party, invites you for a weeklong or weekend retreat, promising a magical camping experience where adventure blends with serenity in…
The biggest and longest running Steampunk festival globally, the Asylum Steampunk Festival, or Weekend at the Asylum returns to Lincoln in August. The Cathedral Quarter in Lincoln is set to…
In returning to Womad 2024 there’s an echo of that joy felt in childhood, of revisiting a favourite place where all will be well. You’ll have a blast and feel…
From 6 to 8 September, the esteemed international yoga practitioner, Parvati Devi, will be hosting a two-day Yoga Shaking and Meditation Retreat at Whatley Manor. Yoga Shaking, an ancient practice…
Take a break, learn, and find inspiration to transform your career, business, and wellbeing at the three-day Reinvention Retreat at Fairmont Windsor Park. Rosie Nixon, a former magazine…
There are hotels you go to for their destination and hotels that become destinations in themselves, Congham Hall Norfolk is both. Set in glorious countryside just outside of the Sandringham…
Mark Bibby Jackson visits some of the industrial heritage in Newcastle given new life. One of my particular likes when travelling is to see how industrial buildings can be transformed…
Read about Adrian Lester’s performance in Mark Bibby Jackson’s Echo review at the Royal Court Theatre, a challenging and rewarding play. Echo Review There are times you feel you are…
“This is the room where Tracey Emin says she had her best sex,” Jane Bishop informs me as she as she hands me the key to room 302 at the…
Learning a new skill, such as art, while on holiday has become a trend in recent years but for some people art classes can be transformative. As I enter Hold Creative…
The UK has so much to offer with its rich history, galleries, theatres and concert halls, its commercial and scientific enterprise and its varied and undeniably scenic countryside.
UK National Parks
There are 15 National Parks in the UK, ranging from coastal areas to mountainous regions in England, Wales and Scotland. There are currently none in Northern Ireland. Unlike National Parks in other countries, in the UK parts of the designated, protected areas can be owned by private landlords. Such areas as the Lake District, Yorkshire Moors, Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, Snowdonia and the Cairngorms draw hikers and naturalists to them like a magnet.
UK Weather
The British never tire of the weather as a talking point. Broadly speaking it is a temperate climate, although winters are becoming wetter and summers warmer, probably from climate change. Warmer in the South, wetter in the West and colder in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the UK climate can be subject to diurnal change on a sudden basis, although, with the advent of satellites, the weather forecasts are more accurate. It is wise to take a waterproof with you on an extended trip.
Northern Ireland
Since the Good Friday Agreement brought greater stability to this previously troubled land, visitors are on an increase. The Titanic Museum displaying memorabilia regarding that renowned disaster and Ulster Museum looking at 3,000 years of Irish culture and history, are well worth a visit. Outside of Belfast, the Mountains of Mourne in County Down and the Giant Causeway, 60 miles outside Belfast, are not to be missed.