Latest hot hut alert: Two off-grid eco cabins made from sustainably-sourced wood. Solar power. High insulation. Bio-fuel fireplace. Comfy bed (duvet and pillows made from home-spun merino wool). Bathroom. Sea views. And I’m liking the sound of the ‘secret seaside garden’ in which they ‘nestle’ (we don’t generally do ‘nestling’ […]
News
Carbis buy: Boskerris Hotel
The Boskerris in Carbis Bay – one of our favourite hotels in Cornwall (or anywhere) – has just been sold. Sad for us, as we have stayed several times (usually for birthdays and anniversaries) and love everything about it: the location, the rooms, the views, the terrace, the friendly little […]
Chester: open-air city
Chester has been declared ‘an open-air city’ – a place to wander safely in the great outdoors while admiring its many assets: Britain’s most complete Roman and medieval walls, for example, Chester Cathedral’s gardens, or – in the half-timbered streets of the old shopping centre – the remarkable Tudor galleries they […]
Send me to Coventry
If you’d asked me two months ago where I’d like to go the moment we were eased out of lockdown, I would have reeled off a list of sunny places: Portugal, Crete, Croatia…I fancy the Arizona desert. Eventually, I’m hoping to revamp our trips to Malaysia, Bali, New Zealand and […]
Carbis Bay: the G7 spot
A few months ago, we listed this Cornish beauty in an off-season round-up of empty beaches. At the time, I could safely say that there were many, even among avid Cornish beach goers, who had never heard of the place (for your reference, it’s on the Atlantic coast, between St Ives […]
Algarve’s beach besties
The best beaches in Europe? The award goes to…the Algarve, on the sunny south coast of Portugal. This is the seventh time (six years in a row) that the World Travel Awards has recognised the quality and variety of the region’s beautiful beaches. If you are thinking Albufeira, you might […]
Cornwall: Jail break
An 8.5-million revamp of Cornwall’s historic Georgian jail opens today. Like most of Cornwall’s post-industrial inland towns, Bodmin doesn’t have a lot to offer the visitor, but the superbly creepy Bodmin Jail is one good reason to check it out. The new Bodmin Jail visitor attraction opens today [1 October]; the forecast […]
Plymouth: out of the Box
Can’t wait to check out The Box in Plymouth, opening tomorrow (Tuesday 29 September) and adding a new museum, gallery and heritage archive to the so-called Ocean City’s cultural landscape. The £46 million project occupies the old – and old-fashioned – City Museum site on North Hill (more or less […]
Devon’s ‘heaven’
According to Tripadvisor, Woolacombe in North Devon is home to one of the best beaches in the world. The beach (pictured above), which made number 20 in the annual round-up of best travel experiences (hotels, cities, countries etc), is described as ‘three miles of heaven’. Number one of the top […]
UK: All going swimmingly
In Penzance, the Jubilee Pool has just opened a new ‘geothermal’ pool – the first of its kind in the UK. The Art Deco seawater lido, dated 1935, continues to offers its classic pool but now has a steamy section using warm water extracted from a geothermal well (heated to […]