Anyone who follows my Instagram account will have noticed that the regular pictures of my laptop next to a cup of tea in a cafe somewhere have been coming from some different places lately. A rather large change in personal circumstances over the summer has led to moving house and travelling around the UK and slightly further afield a fair bit more. And that looks likely to continue. Before children I travelled loads. Around the UK for my job, all over Europe for work related conferences, but also around Europe and sometimes further for pleasure. I love travelling. Love meeting new people, ... read more
What to take camping – a camping packing list
I like to think that I'm a bit of a seasoned camper now. I've certainly been enough times that I know what I'm doing and perhaps most importantly I know what I think I need to take with me. I know that when we started out camping understanding what kit to buy and take with us was one of the hardest things. I even blogged about how we had what we thought was all the kit, but absolutely no idea if it was what we needed or not. With summer here again, I keep finding myself being asked for advice on what you should take camping so I thought it time to pull it all together into one blog post ... read more
Children And The Canary Islands: Where Should You Go?
Nothing’s better than giving your children the chance to travel. Summer vacations are sure to broaden their horizons and open their eyes. But, it would be naive to think that travelling with children is all plain sailing. Instead of visiting countries for their cultural highlights, you’ll need to find destinations which can keep your kids amused. Otherwise, the vacation is sure to be a failure. Spain’s Canary Islands are always a safe pick for families. They’re popular tourist destinations, and as such, have plenty for kids to do. But, it can be hard to know which of the seven islands ... read more
Travelling in the Middle East – Traditions You Should Know
The Middle East is a part of the Earth that most of us dream about exploring, but travelling there is nothing like spending a couple of weeks in Europe or the United States. Dubai, in particular, is famous for its strict laws, while other countries and states are steeped in tradition that tourists would do well to respect. Islamic countries have come out of celebrating Ramadan, which is when Muslim followers fast during the daylight hours. This means no food, water, swearing or inappropriate thoughts as the sun shines. While Ramadan is one of the more well-known traditions of ... read more
Collecting Memories with Hope House Press
Cast your mind back to April if you can... Back in April the world seemed like a simpler place didn't it? Yes 2016 hadn't started amazingly, some celebrities had died but we had no idea back then that Brexit and Trump would be coming later on to make the world seem like the crazy, crazy place it is today. The other thing that happened back in April is that we all went off on holiday to the Isle of Wight. You may recall that last year I won a whole load of holiday vouchers in some little Facebook competition and so we were lucky enough to be able to book a more trips away than we might ... read more
Camping for real
With our trial run over Spring Bank half term saw us head off on our first proper camping trip as a family. This time we didn't have the luxury of our warm dry beds being just 20 minutes away. No, this time it was a proper family holiday. We decided to head up to Derbyshire and after reading about it on a couple of websites selected Callow Top as our base for three nights. I lived not too far from Derbyshire for most of my childhood and there were loads of local places that I wanted to revisit with the family and the convenience of it only being a couple of hours up the M1 made it an ... read more
The Isle of Wight Island Line
Real life has got a bit in the way of writing about our trip to the Isle of Wight last month, but there's still plenty more to share with you. My inner train geek has wanted to go to the Isle of Wight for years for the simple reason of wanting to take a trip on the Island Line. Many people may not realise that the Isle of Wight has its own little railway, but it does. Running from Ryde Pier Head (where you connect with the ferry to Portsmouth Harbour) the route is just 8 and a half miles from there to Shanklin, but the route itself isn't the most exciting bit about this particular train ... read more
A Day at the Needles and Alum Bay, Isle of Wight
When you think of the Isle of Wight, the Needles, the Lighthouse and neighbouring Alum Bay with its colourful sands have to be some of the island's most iconic images. I vaguely remember going on a boat trip around the lighthouse when I was there on a school trip when I was about 8 and I knew it was somewhere that we had to visit again when holidaying on the island as a family. The Needles are right at the far west tip of the Isle of Wight and when you're on the island you always seem to be seeing adverts featuring the Needles themselves, the famous lighthouse and also the cable cars that ... read more
The world’s only commercial hovercraft service
Whilst the kids may have thought the ferry over to the Isle of Wight one of the most exciting parts of our week long holiday there there's actually another way that I want to get to the island the next time we go - hovercraft. The Isle of Wight is home to the world's only remaining commercial hovercraft service which takes passengers between Southsea in Portsmouth and Ryde on the Island. I'd read about this route before we went, but I have to admit that it wasn't until we were in Ryde and found ourselves next to the Hovertravel terminal that I got really excited about it as a mode of ... read more
Our first family camping experience
One thing I've learnt from seasoned camping friends is to do a trial run before a first camping holiday. Something local where you get to test out your tent and other camping equipment and also make sure that the kids don't totally hate the whole concept of camping. With a proper camping holiday planned for part of May half term I figured that we needed something before that so St George's day was booked in as the perfect opportunity for us to have a trial run. Mr C and I have both camped before, but not for years and we don't think we've ever camped together. It was also going to be the kids ... read more