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Going for it in Galway

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Stepping out of the plane into the tiny building that is Knock Airport, I begin to have second thoughts. This airport is too small. How can a hedonist possibly find a good time in the countryside? Will there be cocktails? Two hours and miles of eyeball-tingling green scenery later, we arrive in Galway, a bustling city sitting right along the edge of the big, bad Atlantic Ocean.

The 50 Best holiday cottages

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:55 GMT

The experts:

William Gray is a travel writer and editor of 101familyholidays.co.uk

David Else is lead author of the new Lonely Planet guide to Great Britain, published 17 May.

Jim Manthorpe (jimmanthorpe.com) is the author of guidebook Scottish Highlands – The Hillwalking Guide.

Alastair Sawday is founder of Sawday’s, the guide to special places to stay, and recommends cottages for foodies (sawdays.co.uk)

Emma Gregg (emmagregg.com) is a travel journalist and is eco-renovating an 17th century cottage in East Sussex (apple-cottage.co.uk)

Fowey: from port to page

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

The first sight of Fowey, with its jumble of Georgian houses and pastel-coloured cottages running down to the busy river below, has captivated visitors for centuries. Though Queen Victoria was alarmed when she was taken up "some of the narrowest streets I ever saw in England, and up perpendicular hills", she thought Fowey "very pretty". Poet Robert Bridges called it "the most poetic-looking place in England" and Peter Pan author, J M Barrie, wrote "it is but a toy town to look at, on a bay so small, hemmed in so picturesquely by cliffs and ruins, that of a moonlight night, it might pass for a scene in a theatre".

Snowdonia: Driven wild by a night out in Wales

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:30:00 GMT

'What if you get mugged or eaten by a bear?" cried my friend Jane as I packed my car for the journey ahead. Her suggestion was ridiculous for two reasons. The first is obvious: I was heading to north Wales, not North America. No bears of any variety were likely. The second is that if you take a minute to think about all the muggings that have been reported in the past 20 years, very few of them happened in the middle of the mountains of Snowdonia.

Sculpting sand in Sussex

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

I went to Brighton for a dirty weekend. You don't really expect sand to be dirty – nor for Brighton to have any sand, come to that – but this sand was brought here from Redhill and contains bits of sticky clay. I was at the Sand Sculpture Festival at the former Black Rock swimming pool and about to work on my own creation.

Discover the wilder side of Scotland

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

What's the attraction?

Finally, it seems we've shaken off the malaise of winter. The blossom is coming out, the temperature is rising. And there's perhaps nowhere better to watch as nature clothes herself in robes of new growth than in Scotland, home to some of the most wild and remote landscapes in Britain. A countrywide celebration – Year of Natural Scotland 2013 (visitscotland.com/natural) – pays homage by placing a spotlight on wildlife and the country's diverse landscapes, from wildcats to whales, tousled coast to Caledonian pinewood. It's a clarion call to delight in nature's playground. Websites that offer guidance on how to do so include: snh.gov.uk, wild-scotland.org.uk, wildlife.visitscotland.com and scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk.

Will 'The Gathering' lure you to Ireland this year?

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Despite numerous childhood summers spent with family in Dublin and assorted verdant counties, I'd never felt like I'd "done Ireland". Though my parents relocated to London before I was born, it was always clear that the Old Country still represented "home" to them.

The 50 Best British hotels

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:35 GMT

The experts:

Tom Bell is the editor of Sawday’s Special Places British Hotels & Inns, sawdays.co.uk

Erin Boyd is the founder of dog-friendly travel company Chien Bleu, chienbleutravel.com

Tamara Heber-Percy is co-founder and one half of Mr & Mrs Smith, mrandmrssmith.com

Active Traveller: Mud, midges and majesty - cycling in Scotland

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:57:07 GMT

"I can't believe I flew all the way from my home in California just to take my bike for a walk!" It's remarkable that James has the energy to crack a joke. We're both breathless from hauling our bikes across the endless sodden bog. The freezing rain has started to hammer down again and we've got to wade across another swollen stream with our bikes slung over our shoulders.

The 10 Best gardens to visit

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

1. Helmsley Walled Garden, North Yorkshire

Built in the 18th century, this stunning garden features extensive flower borders as well as greenhouses and fruit trees. The garden is run as a charity that aims to help anyone with a disability benefit from the restorative qualities of gardening and they run weekly horticultural therapy sessions.

Adults, £5.50, concessions £4.50, children, free, helmsleywalledgarden.org.uk

A decade of wandering: Mark Rowe's top ten British walks

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:30:23 GMT

1 Forest of Bowland, Lancashire

According to the Ordnance Survey, this boggy landscape is the geographical centre of the UK – remote countryside with lonely hill farms and far-reaching views.

More information: OL41 Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale

The evergreen appeal of my favourite British ramble

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:30:00 GMT

In 2003, I set out in a force-eight gale to roam a stretch of the North Devon coast for The Independent on Sunday's new Walk of the Month column. Since then, I have explored the north-west of Scotland, rural parts of the South-east and just about every county in between. Ten years, 1,036 miles and 113 walks later, my notebook reports three cow attacks, a horse bite and one call to mountain rescue. I replaced my boots only last year – the old pair are now doing well in the compost heap. I'm also still learning how to fold an OS map in a light breeze. To mark the 10th anniversary of the series, I've picked my top walk in the UK – deep in the Cotswolds – plus 10 more favourites.

Tunnel vision for Bath

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Bath is first and foremost a Georgian city, but its newest attraction is founded on impressive Victorian engineering. Last Saturday, Combe Down Tunnel – bricked up since the closure in 1966 of the Somerset and Dorset Railway – opened with great fanfare to cyclists and walkers.

Cycling coast to coast (in the chilly season)

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

It was one of the first days of the brand new year. I was riding my bike around to Phil's house. It was a blueish-purple Raleigh Tomahawk I'd had for barely more than a week; it had been waiting for me under the Christmas tree when my little brother and I had finally been allowed into the living room. Despite us having been camped outside the door for hours, it was still before dawn. And there it was. Like a smaller Chopper, without the gears, perfect for the eight-year-old me.

B&B and Beyond: YHA South Downs, East Sussex

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 17:00:00 GMT

The unpainted plaster in the lounge, interspersed with raw brickwork, has the kind of mottled look for which a boutique hotel might pay a fortune. But in the case of the South Downs Youth Hostel, which opens this weekend, it looks like that from necessity.

The South West Coast Path: A seaside odyssey

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

We were broken. As the pub chattered around us, we stared dumbly into pints we could barely summon the energy to lift. My burnt face smouldered; my shoulders throbbed at the memory of the hefty pack they'd borne all day. The bar was just metres away, but the effort demanded to get there was Herculean. I hobbled over for the next round.

The 10 Best flea markets

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

1. Vintage Kilo Sale, Edinburgh

We all buy food by weight, so why not clothes? Brought to you by Britain's biggest vintage wholesaler, which is taking five tons of vintage stock to Scotland and selling it at £15 a kilo. There couldn't be a cheaper way to bulk buy retro outfits.

4 and 5 May, judysvintagefair.co.uk

Back on track: old railway lines you can hike and cycle

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

What's the attraction?

It's now 50 years since Dr Richard Beeching, then the Chairman of British Railways, published his report, The Reshaping of British Railways. It outlined plans to close half of Britain's railway stations and remove 30 per cent of available rail miles. Protests were widespread, but the Beeching axe fell, nevertheless.

Win an epicurean two-night spa break in a luxury York country house hotel worth nearly £800

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:27:21 GMT

Middlethorpe Hall and Spa is a York institution: a gorgeous red-brick William and Mary country house, built in 1699 and lovingly refurbished into a sumptuous, historic hotel.

Tales from the Trees: The Lord of the Rings comes to the Yorkshire woodlands

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:00:00 GMT

It's not often you can walk from a high street into the heart of an ancient woodland. One minute I am in a bustling Yorkshire market town, takeaway cappuccino in hand, the next I am ducking down stone steps to Eller Beck, a strip of canal and river that runs through a steep-sided gorge fringed with ash, oak, sycamore and pine. The buzzing repartee of stall owners is soon replaced by the songs of robins and chaffinches, shop awnings for a weeping willow in bud.

Rail reminders: Britain hits the buffers – then bounces back

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Could there be a more perfect way to walk into Tavistock, in the foothills of Dartmoor, on this delicious spring morning than along the disused track of the railway that once led into the town? The early primroses and daffodils are out and the song thrushes are busying with their nests. No one could fail to feel the sap rising in this most idyllic corner of our green and pleasant land. But what's this? There's a spectre walking alongside me that I can't quite shake off. He's bald and portly, and his funereal overcoat and unfashionable homburg hat a contrast to the Rohan and Lycra-clad walkers and cyclists.

Wet and wild in Wales

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

What's the attraction?

Wheeeeeeee! Next week, Wales will unveil the largest zipwire experience in the northern hemisphere – which, for the uninitiated, means whizzing as high as 213m above Bethesda's Penrhyn Quarry at speeds topping 75mph, dangled (safely) from a bit of cord. Zip World (01690 710914; zipworld.co.uk; from £36/45 child/adult) opens on Saturday 30 March. As Wales's rugby players demonstrated on Saturday, this is a nation that knows how to do rugged – and there are plenty of other active options available. What's more, according to the Met Office, the late spring months offer Wales's driest weather. So what are you waiting for?

Low-life tourism: London sights it would be a crime to miss

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:48:56 GMT

If you’ve been to any of the bigger tourist attractions in the capital of late, you’ll know that the ticket prices at the Tower of London are criminal and the queues at the London Eye are enough to drive anyone to murder. But there’s plenty on offer for tourists who want to something a little bit different… and a good bit darker. My book, Criminal London, a Sightseer’s Guide to a Capital of Crime, gives the low-down on the capital’s low-life.

B&B and Beyond: Weeke Barton, Devon

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:00:00 GMT

You might think you've gone awry. Because when you turn off Dartmoor's one main road, trace a river, cross a stone bridge, squeeze down a lane and arrive at this traditional white homestead, you walk right into Hackney.

B&B and Beyond: Thirty Two, Cheltenham

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Racing enthusiasts will descend on Gloucestershire this week for the annual Cheltenham Festival – a four-day equestrian event incorporating the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday – but only the lucky ones will be staying at Thirty Two. This stylish, four-room boutique residence sells out months in advance of big race days, so forward planning is required to bag a room.